Professor Yu-Gi-Oh and the Abridged Puzzle: Kidnapped Again
by Aquailita
Summary: The two most kidnapped characters in the YuGiOh show and the Professor Layton game, Mokuba and Flora, have been kidnapped yet again and are being held for ransom by a Ninja Guy. While the two of them try to escape, their family and friends try to rescue them. But the reason why they were kidnapped and the story behind Ninja Guy are more complicated than they seem. YGOTAS and PL
1. Kidnapped Once Again

PYGOatAP (Professor Yu-Gi-Oh! and the Abridged Puzzle)

Summary: Yet another crossover! This time, the two most kidnapped characters in the Yu-Gi-Oh anime and the Professor Layton games- Mokuba and Flora- have been kidnapped yet again by some weird-ninja-guy-person who wants to lure their friends and family to do stuff for him. The two of them join forces (and maybe fall in love) and try to escape together. Meanwhile, their loved ones try to get them back. Will they be able to figure out how to stop getting kidnapped? Probably not.

Characters: Flora Reinhold & Mokuba Kaiba

Rating: T, to be safe

Genre: Friendship & Humor & Adventure

* * *

**Hello there! I promised you all this story to be starting soon (I said this at some point in Professor Layton and the Fourth Wall) and here it is! Finally! It's been sitting in my iPod for some time!**

**I have other crossovers, and there's one like this where two characters come together and bond over their similarities. In "Who Are You", it was Ryou and Canada (from Hetalia) who became friends over the fact that people ignore and forget them. In this, it's Mokuba and Flora who have been kidnapped, yet again, and who become friends while trying to escape. This will be MUCH longer than "Who Are You", with a whole entire crazy plot happening. And puzzles! And card games! Did I mention it's Abridged Mokuba? The title should make it obvious.**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Prologue: Two Stolen Children•

They pushed her out of the car and led her somewhere. They entered a building and led her through what seemed like countless corridors, until she finally heard a door being opened and felt herself being pushed inside. Her captors released their holds on her. Her relief was short-lived, for as soon as they pushed her away she felt another person grab her arm, and lead her further into the room she assumed.

To put it simply, she was scared. She didn't know why these people wanted her, and she would anxiously wait to be rescued. But who knew how long that would take? Her captors had been very quiet and stealthy. They had taken her earlier that night, instantly blindfolded and gagged her, then quietly snuck out and driven to wherever they were now.

She was too scared to try to resist or struggle or cry out. She always was when this kind of stuff happened. And she hated it. She tried to be brave but... She just couldn't fight back.

She felt herself being seated in a chair and tied to it, her hands being tied behind her back and her legs tied to the legs of the chair. It was uncomfortable. Especially for a refined and polite young lady like herself.

Flora sighed and waited for whoever had kidnapped her this time to show up and explain what he or she wanted with her.

.

He exited the car and was led into a building and through a maze of hallways. He was used to being blindfolded, so his hearing had developed to be stronger than average for his age. He had been able to keep track of every turn and twist in the hallways and on the road, and if by some fluke he escaped he could return home on his own.

But that would be boring. And he wasn't used to that. He was used to being kidnapped and held for ransom, so this was practically standard protocol for him. And how interesting that just before this happened, he was thinking that he was overdue!

Earlier that night, he had been taken from his bedroom by masked strangers dressed in black who immediately blindfolded and gagged him, then quietly snuck out without being detected. He hadn't even struggled or fought back. Because either they were in his room because he knew them or because he was being kidnapped again. So it really didn't matter.

Maybe he would escape this time! Like that one time... No... That was only because there was someone else with him. This time, there was no one else.

He was finally led into a room. He could tell that it was dark except for a single light. Someone pushed him in the room, then someone else took him and led him to a chair. They sat him down in it and tied him up.

Okay... Rare, but nothing new.

As they tied his hands behind his back, he felt another pair of hands touching his for an instant before drawing away. A bit odd, for some reason.

Mokuba began playing his little mental game and sighed behind the gag, waiting for someone to come and tell him why he was kidnapped yet again.

* * *

**AN: I put the second chapter in here as well because I felt like the first was lacking on its own. So I made it a prologue and made THIS the first chapter.**

* * *

•Chapter 1: The Damsels Meet and Situation Explanation•

.

They were still blindfolded and gagged. After about two minutes, they heard the door opening. The girl perked up, her heart grabbing on to the hope of rescue and release. On the other hand, the boy just rolled his eyes and thought _"finally!"_, knowing that his captor was there.

They heard a snap and footsteps. Their blindfolds and gags were finally removed and both breathed heavily through their mouths. Their breathing slowed and their eyes turned to the figure they assumed had walked in. They didn't bother trying to examine at their darkened surroundings.

"Hello there, children!" the voice said. He was hiding in the shadows to the side of them, and all that could be seen of him was his height, tall, and clothing, long-sleeved and black. "I don't feel like introducing myself. But I already know who you are."

"Child_ren_?" Mokuba asked.

"What's going on?" Flora asked.

"So. You two are in the care of and know people who have great minds- possibly the greatest minds in the world- and lots of money. So I'm holding you for ransom. All I need is for them to come to me and agree to do what I want. That's all. I don't want anything of you or plan to put you into any harm. Because you two are useful as well. But they don't know that."

"Okay so let's just go through this," Mokuba boldly and boredly interrupted. "You want my brother and this other person's guardian to come here and do something for you, and maybe you'll use us later and pretend to threaten us. Then you'll either knock us out and bring us back home or wipe our memories."

"Whoever you are," Flora called out fearfully, "Please don't make things worse for us!" Then she addressed the man. "What do you plan to do with us?"

"Now my dear, I will let the boy speak and ignore him. And I will tell you in good time. I'm actually not going to leave you like this. I just wanted to set the mood, so I tied you up and darkened the room. I'll release you when I leave the room. Enjoy yourselves children!" He walked out the door which only Mokuba faced, which was plain and had a barred window. Mokuba couldn't see him any better because the hallway wasn't much brighter than the room. The door closed.

.

From outside the room, a person he assumed was their watchman looked inside and said, "You can untie each other. The knots are simple." Then his face disappeared.

As soon as Mokuba couldn't see the watchman, he reached out his hands and tried to touch the girl's hands. He felt them and grabbed them. "You wanna untie me first or should I?"

"Me first please!"

Mokuba quickly untied the knots and slid off the ropes. Then she began untying him. When both of their hands were free, they wiggled and squirmed to get their arms in front of them so they could remove the ropes around their torsos. They succeeded and bent down to untie their legs.

The last of the ropes fell to the floor and they sighed in relief. "I must say, none of my other kidnappers ever bothered to use rope before."

The girl turned around. He could barely see a confused expression on her face. "Other kidnappers? You mean this has happened to you before too?"

"Too? This has happened to you before too?"

"Yup."

"Wow. I just love how they kidnapped two children that have been kidnapped so many times before. Isn't that nice?"

"Um... Yes it is. Who are you?"

"I'm Mokuba Kaiba. My brother is Seto Kaiba, the richest and biggest-" Mokuba refrained from cursing in front of the girl, on the off-chance that he would make friends with her. Or more. Anything could happen. "-I mean the president OF THE biggest- gaming company in the world. Right after Nintendo."

"Oh. My name is Flora Reinhold. My um... Guardian... is Professor Hershel Layton, the best professor at Gressenheller University in London."

Mokuba's eyes widened. _Holy crap!_ he though, _Not only is she from a game, but from a game played on a system created by one of Kaiba Corp's rivals! And she's one of the least useful main characters! And to make things worse, she's from Bakura's home country! This is the worst possible person to be kidnapped with! But then again, I'm from an anime about children's card games. This must be a fanfic. I should play along so the fourth wall doesn't break and Seto doesn't yell at me again. I wouldn't want another fangirl getting in here._ "Um... London... Wow. England. Gressenheller... Never heard of it."

"I wouldn't expect you to. We're from England after all. I mean, I know he's famous around the world, but I know not _everyone_ has heard of him."

"Right..." After a few more seconds, Mokuba couldn't resist. "You're British. Forgive me for being rude, but I'm trying to find your accent."

"Hmph! I've heard about something like this happening to a friend of mine and don't even start bothering me about where I'm from! Just don't. Please. Now where are we? And how do we get out of here?"

Mokuba calmly walked over to the wall near the door and felt around. Then he found a light switch and turned on the light.

Two lamps in opposite corners of the room turned on. They were finally able to examine their surroundings. It was a basic room with a simple desk, two more chairs, a couch, a coffee table, a broken flat screen TV, and other boring furniture.

Then they looked at each other. Mokuba wore the clothes he normally wore, and that familiar yellow vest. Flora wore a dark green floral dress and thin navy blue leggings underneath. Flora was taller than Mokuba by about a foot or less. "Hey there," Mokuba said.

"Hi," Flora responded.

_She's cute_, Mokuba thought. _But I probably shouldn't say that out loud._

_He looks adorable!_ Flora thought. _But I'd better not say that out loud._

"Um... Like I said, I'm Mokuba," he said, holding out a hand.

"And once again, I'm Flora," she said, shaking the hand.

They turned away and looked around, trying to find a way to escape. At a first glance, there wasn't any. But they would try to find one later.

"Where's the food?" Mokuba asked.

"What?"

"All of my kidnappers usually feed me to keep me quiet. And content."

Flora looked at him with concern. "Mokuba... How many times have you been kidnapped before?"

"Hm... Let me think." He began counting on his fingers. Flora's eyes widened as he went through several rounds of five. "Maybe about... I don't know... 20 or more."

"Oh my gosh! You poor thing! Why so many?"

Mokuba shrugged. "My brother is Seto Kaiba. He's the richest person in Japan. I think. I'm always getting kidnapped for one reason or another. I'm used to it by now. Once in a while I escape. But not often."

Flora thought. "Well! We're going to escape now! Well not NOW now. But this time we will escape. Before anyone comes for us. I wouldn't want anyone getting hurt trying to save us."

"Well I hope no one gets hurt. Usually all they have to do is play a card game and they get here alright. For you all they have to do is solve a bunch of puzzles."

"True."

"Let's look for stuff."

"Well I don't have any better ideas, so let's do that."

So the two began searching. Mokuba, for cards. Flora, for puzzles and hint coins. She inspected all of the doors and walls, while he inspected all of the cracks and crevices where cards might be hidden. They were about to search the bookshelf in the room together, when they heard the door being opened.

They spun around and saw who seemed to be their captor again entering. He wore all black and had his face covered except for his eyes, kinda like a ninja.

"I'm glad to see that you are trying to escape. How adorable. But it won't work." The door closed behind him as he entered the room. He leaned against the door. "Now that you both know a bit more, allow me to explain even more stuff that probably won't be of any use to you. Flora... What I'm after are the expert puzzle-solving and deductive skills of your guardian and adoptive father, Hershel Layton, and the animal-talking abilities of his so-called 'apprentice', Luke Triton. Mokuba, what I want are the money your brother Seto has as well as the puzzle solving skills of Yugi Muto and the Shadow Magic of his other soul, At-"

"Don't spoil it now!" Mokuba suddenly shouted. "Not everyone has watched Season 5 yet!"

"Um... Right. And the Shadow Magic of his other soul, known as Yami or Pharaoh. Those five things are crucial to us. And at some point I'm going to get answers and weaknesses out of you so I can lure them here and wherever else I want."

"What makes you think that Yugi is going to come with my brother?"

"And what makes you think that the Professor will allow Luke to come here with him?"

"Because they always do. All I need to do is set up about five dozen puzzles and about a dozen card games along the way and everyone will come running. I know how the Yu-Gi-Oh! and Professor Layton series work. And I know exactly how to get what I want from you two. Even if someone comes to rescue you, the room has a soundproofed barrier over the walls and door. No one will hear you so they won't find your room. So I suggest you enjoy each other's company and I'll see you later. Maybe I'll have food."

"I don't want food! I want out!"

"Oh boy food! Be back soon!"

The ninja-guy-person-man chuckled at them, then exited swiftly.

Neither of them even dared hope to be able to beat a guard to the door before it closed.

* * *

**Well, I hope that interested you a lot! I have at least 5-7 more chapters of this ready. I'll maybe post AT LEAST one a week, if not more. Now you can hold my word against me and quote me on it. I check the site every day so if you notice that I've forgotten the week's chapter, tell me. So did I forget teh next chapter? TELL ME! Someone: "Oh you'll find out! I'm about to summon it!" lol...**

**And so the fun begins! And the suspense! And the puzzles! And the card games! And the shut up Mokuba.**

**Next chapter: Feeling Trapped And Kidnapped and Finding A Hopeful Puzzle**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	2. Feeling Trapped&Finding A Hopeful Puzzle

**Here's another chapter for you! This update is fast, I know, but it won't always be like that. When I get up to the chapter after they find out the card doesn't work (you won't understand what this means untill we get there, so it's not a spoiler) chapter updates will start becoming less frequent because I'm better at creating puzzles than I am about writing a duel. **

**But anyway, have fun reading! Here's chapter 2!**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 2: Feeling Trapped And Kidnapped and Finding A Hopeful Puzzle•

"I guess we're stuck in here..." Mokuba said sadly. "I'm used to this but..." he leaned against the wall next to the door, slid to the floor, and hid his face behind his knees. "I hate how this always happens to me! Why can't it happen to some other small person like Rebecca or Yugi or even Bakura? Or maybe to Serenity... Someone besides me. And why can't I ever fight back?! I know I should but I never do."

Flora looked at him sympathetically and sat next to him cross-legged. She put a hand on his shoulder, startling him and making him look up. "Hey, don't beat yourself up over this. It's not your fault. If anything, it's your brother's fault for not keeping you better protected."

"You got that right. No offense to girls, but I feel kinda like crap for being a boy yet always the only one being the 'damsel in distress'. One would expect people like Téa and Mai and that Rebecca girl to be kidnapped. But instead they choose me. Just because my brother is rich and because I'm small and adorable. Like you." Mokuba gasped and blushed, realizing what he had just said.

But Flora didn't seem to notice. "You said this has happened before. Would you mind telling me about some of those times?"

"Well I don't, but only if you're willing to listen because there are a lot."

"Sure, go ahead."

"Okay. One of the first was when these evil guys traitors trying to take over my brother's company kept me locked up because they didn't want me telling anyone. Then I escaped, but this Hair Guy found me again. Then Pegasus sealed my soul in a card. And then there was the time I was kidnapped by accident because me and a female version of myself had switched outfits. But I did it to rescue Seto because he had been trapped in a video game. Then there was that time in my brother's card game tournament when they kidnapped me and hung me by my pants from a helicopter over my brother because they were trying to lure him to play a card game and give up his god card. And another time when Evil Tristan grabbed me from his motorcycle and knocked me out in order to lure Seto into playing a card game with my evil stepbrother. Another time I was kidnapped while I slept by an evil gay British spirit named Florence and temporarily sent to the Shadow Realm. There were others in between, but I don't remember them all exactly." When Mokuba had finished talking, he looked at Flora. Her mouth was slightly open and her eyes were wide. She was trying to process all of what he had said. As well as find out who Mai and Téa and Rebecca were.

"Wow..." she said at last. "You poor thing! You've been through a lot, haven't you? Aw..." She gently wrapped her arms around him. Mokuba's blush returned and was much redder. He smiled, sighed, and leaned into her. _Holy crap I think I'm in love!_

"Hey, Flora," he said, trying to distract himself. "Tell me about some of your kidnappings."

"Uh... Um... Well okay. Because you told me yours I guess it's only fair to tell you mine." She removed her arms and began to tell. "Two of the worst ones happened while investigating strange incidences. When we were looking for the Elysian Box, we were in Dropstone and I got separated from the Professor and Luke, so then I think Don Paolo kidnapped me and then pretended to be me in order to get to the Box. It was really scary because I didn't know the town and I had run into him before. And when we were exploring what we thought was Future London, this guy named Clive suddenly grabbed me after the Professor blew his cover and he took me to this big destruction mobile fortress and hid me in a glass cage. But I admit that the cage was kinda cozy. I actually liked it in there."

"Not as many as me..."

"Well that just means that I'm not as used to it as you!"

"Have you ever escaped on your own?"

"Nope. Never."

"I have. Only once. But that was because someone had helped me and because there was a window there. But there isn't anything like that here and the only exit is locked. I guess escape is hopeless!"

Suddenly the door opened. They were on the side without the hinges, so they actually saw someone's feet.

By instinct, Mokuba and Flora tried to crawl through the opening before the person entering could stop them.

"Well that just can't happen."  
They were both kicked back into the room. Mokuba fell backwards on top of Flora.  
"Aaah!"  
"Hey!"

"You still trying to escape? Hopeless. Stop trying." They looked up and saw the same ninja-looking guy carrying a tray with a cover on it. "By the way here's your food." He walked over to the table and set the tray down. Too stunned from the kick, Flora and Mokuba didn't try to crawl out again. But as soon as the tray was down, Mokuba shot up and ran over to the table. The ninja-like guy left the room. "See you later. Maybe with something to drink." Then his face disappeared from the window.

Flora stood up and brushed the dirt off her dress and pants. "Sorry for falling on you Flora," Mokuba said from across the room.

"It's alright."

"I wonder what..." He pulled the cover off the tray and gazed at the food in awe. "Whoa! This is the best kidnapping ever! Way better than Noah's!" There were sandwiches cut into triangles, several donuts, cookies of different kinds, biscuits, and two bagels. There were small paper plates and napkins there as well. He reached for the food. He took a donut and was about to eat it when...

"Mokuba no!" Flora ran over to him as fast as she could and grabbed his wrist before he could take a bite.

"Flora?! What are you doing?!"

"I'm sorry!" She let go of his wrist. "But it might be poisoned or drugged! You shouldn't take the risk!"

Mokuba narrowed his eyes at her. "Flora, they want to use us as bait and for a bunch of other stuff. They're not gonna drug or poison us and risk us being in bad health for their plans. It'll be fine." He put the donut up to his mouth again and took a bite as Flora drew back and covered her mouth in worry and fear.

He chewed for a moment, then swallowed. He smiled wide. "Oh boy it's filled with jelly! Best kidnapping ever!" He took a plate and threw himself on the couch, and began just chillin' as he ate his donut.

Flora shook her head and laughed a bit, but picked up a plate as well and took a sandwich. She sat next to Mokuba and began eating. After taking a bite, she stared at her sandwich and swallowed. "Hmph," she said. "I make them better."

'I just might be adorable enough to have a chance at marrying this girl,' Mokuba thought. 'Her accent is so non-existant that I can overlook the fact that she's British. Well... If we can get out of here that is. Which reminds me...' "So what was I saying? About escape being hopeless? That weird ninja-guy pretty much confirmed it. I guess we'll just have to wait for Seto and Yugi and Luke and Layton to get here." He had finished his first donut, so he took another. He began omnomnomming on that one. "Tell me about Luke and the Professor. I don't play the games."

"Okay. Well Luke is an adorable 13 year old."

"So am I," Mokuba accidentally said.

"So are you." Mokuba smiled a tiny bit when she said that. "He likes blue and animals, and puzzles of course! He's got a bit of an attitude when it comes to talking to the bad guys. But he's a really fine young gentleman. He's learning about puzzles and being polite from the professor. Speaking of him..." Flora smiled. "He's the best ever. He's smart and polite; the perfect model of an English Gentleman. He loves puzzles and he's an archeologist. He knows so much and he always helps those in need. He's loving and caring and protective and well... He's just the best guardian ever. He never gives up. Ever. Which is why I know he'll come rescue me. I just know it!

"Tell me about Seto and Yugi."

"Uh well... You asked for it. This is going to get complicated. My big brother Seto loves me. I just know it. But he doesn't really pay attention to me much and resents my being kidnapped practically once a week. And pardon my language Flora, but he's probably the biggest and most arrogant and self-centered asshole in the whole freaking world." Flora's eyes widened a bit at his language, but kept listening. "He runs our family company, Kaiba Corp, which deals with gaming systems and fancy technology. He has an ego bigger than a blimp. He hates stairs. He's the best at Duel Monsters, the game that practically determines the fate of life in Domino City. He never looses. Well... Only to Yugi. Speaking of Yugi... The truth is that there are two Yugis. One of them looks like a panda and is really good at puzzles. He's all about friendship and he likes to say 'super-special-awesome' a lot. That's the normal Yugi. The darker Yugi is a bit taller. He's much better at card games that the panda Yugi. He's this really old spirit in his Millenium Puzzle and likes to Mind Crush people, wear leather, play nothing but card games, absolutely hates excessive friendship, and always wins at games. He's the King of Games of the world. He beat the creator of Duel Monsters at his own game! He's pretty awesome. But Seto is better. He's way better."

"How can you say that?" Flora asked. "You said that he's an arrogant jerk who doesn't pay attention to you, and that Yugi is nice and really good at games."

"Seto is my brother. Yugi isn't."

Flora smiled at that. "Aw. You're loyal to your brother. How nice."

"The differences between the two Yugis is that the regular Yugi is straight I believe and the other Yugi is gay. And Yugi cares more about friendship and other games. But they share a body and friends. And a deck. And they both have the most ridiculous hair you will ever see."

"That I _will_ ever see?" Flora repeated, with a smile.

"Um... Yes. Because you haven't seen it yet. Why did you say it like that?"

"Because you used future tense, Mokuba!"

"Your point?"

"You said that I _will_ see them."

"So..."

"It's not hopeless!" Flora shouted. She threw her arms up in excitement. "Escape, I mean."

"What makes you say that?"

"This room is full of things that can help us out! We just have to find them. If being with the Professor and Luke has taught me anything, it's to never give up, stay optimistic, and that every puzzle has an answer. And I think I've found the answer!"

"Where?"

"This bookshelf!" she exclaimed, running over to it. "Bookshelves usually have some hidden secret or function!"

"So let's get searching!"

Together, they checked every book for a switch of some sort. They found nothing. Occasionally, Flora looked at the door to see if anything changed. Nothing did. But she noticed something.

She gasped as she looked between the bookshelf and the door. And an air vent that was way up high near the door. But it was bolted and screwed and probably sealed shut. But it was okay...

"What is it?" Mokuba asked when she gasped. He followed her gaze.

She looked at him wide-eyed and hopeful. "Mokuba! I think we have a puzzle to solve!

* * *

**AAAWWWW! Mokuba is in love! How adorable!  
As for shippings: NO HINTS! FIGURE IT OUT! And as for who from the anime and game are going to show up later: ALSO NO HINTS! However I will tell you one thing: Someone is going to end up disappointed. But that doesn't tell you anything, now does it? No. Not really.**

**Next chapter(s):  
Faking Escaping  
and  
Invisible Guns and a Wayward Elevator**

**I'm wondering... since this is the abridged YGO, does anyone think I should try to make the PL a bit funnier by adding in elements from Professor Layton and the Malignant Growth (a parody series on YouTube). Not like CRAZY that, but as in some references? I don't know. I feel like if there's YGOTAS in here, I should even out the humor by adding some PLatMG in here as well... Maybe...**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	3. Faking Escaping

**Here's your chapter for the week! I implied last chapter that this would be a two-in-one chapter. It's not. I think the invisible guns and elevator thing can wait and can have its own space, because it's a big transitional chapter (big as in important, not lengthy). You'll just have to wait. So Basically: They were kidnapped for about the hundredth time. This time, to be used as bait to lure the greatest (and richest) minds to do stuffs. (Also, Mokuba has a crush on Flora.) But Mokuba and Flora have decided to fight back! Time for some action! In this chapter!**

**Here we go!**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 3: Faking Escaping•

Flora got to work removing all of the books from the shelf and moving the bookshelf over to the door. Then she worked on removing the shelves. Mokuba got to work disassembling the broken TV, a random computer keyboard, and fiddled with some wires and circuit boards he had on him.

When they were done, they had an empty bookcase frame and this small weird device that could fit through the vet grating.

"Help me, Mokuba," Flora asked.

Mokuba put the device in his pocket and ran over to the bookshelf to help.

They got two chairs and used all of their strength to lift the bookshelf onto them. They took a break after that because it had been a lot of work. The bookshelf was heavy even without the books and the shelves. After a food break, they kept lifting it higher and higher, placing another book under each side of the shelf as they lifted it and using the books for themselves as stepstools.

Finally, the bookshelf was lifted up to the ceiling and close to the door.

Mokuba looked Flora dead in the eyes. "Flora," he said in all seriousness, "are you sure this is going to work?"

Flora gave him. A reassuring smile. "It will. I promise. I know a lot about structure and architecture. I grew up in a town and a tower that relied heavily on structure and mechanics, so I know what I'm talking about. Trust me."

Mokuba smiled. "Of course I trust you, Flora. I always will."

"Thanks, Mokuba. Now let's get this in place!"

Together, they carefully slid the bookshelf to the wall above the door. As Flora had so keenly noticed, the bookshelf was exactly as tall as the space between the top of the door frame and the ceiling. They were going to wedge the bookshelf in that space. It would not fall because it would have to tilt in order to fall, and the top of the bookshelf would be pressed into the ceiling so it _couldn't_ tilt. No tilt, no fall. And the door frame stuck out from the wall about one inch. Everything would work out.

After about a minute, the two had managed to squeeze the bookshelf in place. They pushed on the sides of the shelf to make sure it was securely in place. It was. It wouldn't be going anywhere. Even if they wanted to move it, this bookshelf would never move. Ever.

"Okay, Mokuba! Your turn!"

Mokuba nodded. He rearranged the books and chairs as stairs to reach the shelf. He climbed up and sat inside the bookshelf. He fit just fine. The bookshelf was wide and long and tall enough for him. He gave Flora a thumbs up when he was in. Then she started passing a few books up. She gave him about five books, then one of the shelves they had removed.

When he had everything, he took out the device on the wire and slid it through the grating of the air vent cover that was just in front of the top of the bookshelf. Flora had measured and calculated EVERYTHING just right!

Then she passed up a tablecloth that she had very expertly made look like an empty bookshelf. Mokuba hung it in place, then stuck his hand out and gave a thumbs up to her. The hand disappeared.

Flora arranged the remaining books and chairs to look like stepping stools up to the bookshelf for Mokuba and up to the vent for her.

Everything was ready.

Flora carefully balanced herself on her pile. Then she took something out of her pocket. She gazed at it.

"My last hint coin," she whispered. She had more at home. But this was the last one she had on her person.

She threw it out the door through the bars. She prepared to fall.

She fell.

~.~

The guard stood outside the door, wearing a simple black uniform jacket, trousers, and belt. He was extremely bored. Then, he saw a coin fly out of the room, then felt- not heard, due to the soundproofing- a crash. He rapidly turned to the door and looked inside. He saw the girl on the floor under a fallen pile of books and chairs, looking up at the ceiling _exactly_ where the grate was!

He quickly unlocked the door and ran inside. The girl looked up as if alarmed and gasped. He looked up at the ceiling and gasped as well. The empty bookshelf was there, wedged between the door and the ceiling next to the grate!

The guard looked around for the boy, but couldn't see him.

"Where-?"

"Mokuba!" the girl named Flora shouted at the grate in a panicked and alarmed voice. "They heard and the guard is in here! He has me!"

A voice came from the grate, sounding distant. "Don't worry Flora!" the boy named Mokuba replied from inside. "I think I see a few exits! I'll try looking to see where they are!"

"Oh no!" the guard breathed. It was easy to see what had happened. Mokuba and Flora had put the bookshelf up between the door frame and the ceiling, then Mokuba got inside and used it as a platform. He somehow removed the cover for the vent and went inside the air vent system! Then Flora climbed up and replaced the cover for him to buy them time later! But she had fallen and alerted a guard, so their plan had been foiled!

Only about ten seconds had passed since he had entered the room. He acted fast. He grabbed Flora's arm and pressed a button on his mouth/ earpiece communicator. "CODE erm... CODE ESCAPE!" he shouted into it. "The girl and boy have somehow opened the air vent and the boy is now roaming around the air vent system. All guards report to any room with one or more air vents on the fifth floor! Wait for him to try to come out of one or look out through one! Relay his location if you see him!" He waited, listening for responses. "Yes I am sure. I heard his voice from inside the vent just a few seconds ago!"

Flora was struggling and squirming, trying to get away. But her efforts were in vain. Then she kicked him in the leg.

"OW!" he cried out, accidentally saying it with the mouthpiece communicator still on.

He heard a response to his cry of pain. "No, I don't need backup. She just kicked me in the leg, that's all. I'm fine. I've got the girl! Over and out!" He let go of the device and let it go off.

He turned to Flora, his back to the door. He glared threateningly at her and spoke just the same tone. "Listen up, girl! You two have no chance of escape, so I suggest you realize it and make everyone's life easier by not wasting everyone's time trying. It's pointless. And-"

"Now, Moky!" she shouted.

Huh? He felt a book hit his head. He turned around and looked up, just in time to see Mokuba with fake empty bookshelf tablecloth torn off and a shelf in his hands, swinging at that moment towards the guard's face.

The board made contact and the guard fell down unconscious.

* * *

**How do you like THAT?! They're fighting back! Just like I said. But wait untill you see the REAL fight. And I mean that very literally!**

**I decided not to put anything PLatMG in here. Not really good for the mood of this story. Maybe another fanfic... Maybe.**

**Next chapter:  
Invisible Guns and A Wayward Elevator**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	4. Invisible Guns

**HERE WE GO AGAIN! I have decided to give you two chapters this week. Here's the first one. ****I decided to split this into two chapters instead of one because they are two VERY different transitional chapters. A Wayward Elevator is being up up TODAY.**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 5: Invisible Guns•

Flora pulled herself out of the guard's loose grasp. Mokuba carefully jumped down from the bookshelf. He also removed the voice device he had configured and put it in his pocket again.

They hid the fake cover, took all of the books out of the bookshelf, left everything on the floor the way it was, and moved the guard behind the couch and out of sight. The TV still _looked_ like it worked.

They searched the guard and took some of his stuff.

Mokuba put on the communicator, in case all the guards had trackers on them so they could be located if something happened. It would look suspicious if the guard stayed in the same place and didn't move when he would otherwise be taking Flora somewhere else. He also took the guard's belt of stuff, which included a flashlight, a deck of cards, two or three folded-up puzzles, a gun, and an invisible gun.

Flora took and put on the guy's jacket, which had in the pockets and folds and hidden item holders: a wallet with money and ID cards in it, another puzzle, two more trading cards, a Twinkie, twenty hint coins which had all expired three years ago, a lazer pointer, and a map of the air vent system.

"Flora," Mokuba said, again serious. "Can I trust you with something?"

"Anything, Mokuba."

He didn't forget how she had called him 'Moky'. It was absolutely adorable. "I want to know that you will be safe and responsible with what I am about to give you."

"Sure, what?"

He handed her something invisible.

Her eyes widened. "Wha... Mokuba what is this! It feels like a..." A few seconds later, a faint grey shape became visible. It was transparent, but she could see it.

It was a gun.

As soon as he had handed her the gun, it disappeared from his sight. He couldn't see it anymore, but she could.

"What is this?"

"An invisible gun," Mokuba answered. "It's somewhat powerful. And magical. It's obviously different from a real gun because it's invisible. It can only be seen and used by the person who holds it, and a new holder will only be able to use it after five minutes of holding it. Now, you have four minutes left to be able to use it. It is less powerful than a real gun, but it is still magical and can do more than a real gun. I don't know _everything_ about these things, but I know a lot. Flora..." Mokuba put a hand on her shoulder. "Can I trust you with this?"

Flora looked at the gun, stared at it, glanced at Mokuba, then back at the gun. "I-I've never used a gun before. And I'm not violent. But..." She sighed deeply. "If it helps us escape I guess I can learn to use it. For us. Thank you, Mokuba."

Flora took Mokuba in her arms and hugged him. He tensed up for a moment, having been caught off guard. Then he relaxed and hugged back, enjoying the little piece of heaven that the Pokémon Gods he had found through his Japanese puberty had given him.

They broke away.

Mokuba smiled at Flora. "Two or three minutes left," he said.

He walked over to the guard and removed the belt around his pants. He took the belt and helped Flora put it on, twisting it and fashioning it with some spare wire and making it into a belt with a holster for the gun.

"One minute," he updated. She continued holding the gun in her right hand. "Which hand do you write with?"

"Right."

He moved the holster to her left.

"Since we're dubbed by 4Kids," Mokuba explained as he worked, "they censored out guns. But we still use invisible guns. They never work and are stupid. But that's on-screen. Off-screen, they are very working and not stupid at all. So be careful. I've never used one but Seto told me a bit about them. And I know how to use a real gun."

"How? You're so young. Why would you need to know that?"

"My brother is Seto freaking Kaiba. I need to defend myself for the creeps that come after me but _don't_ want to kidnap me."

"Uh... Makes sense."

"Time's up. You have control of the gun now."

"Ah!" A bit nervous, Flora shoved the gun into the holster.

"Relax, Flora. It's fine."

She nodded. "Can you teach me how to use it? I have never used a gun in my life."

"Sure. But we would have to spend some escape time teaching you."

Flora thought for a moment. "No," she said. "No I think I can figure it out. I don't want to hold us back."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure. Just trust me. I'll figure it out." She smiled reassuringly.

Mokuba remembered how confident and sure she looked when she was explaining that the bookshelf wouldn't fall. She was a very brave and confident girl. He was liking her more and more. He knew that Flora would protect both of them and stay strong. He smiled back. "Okay. I trust you. Let's go!"

They raced out the door together.

Outside, Flora stopped and found her hint coin. She picked it up and pocketed it.

Then they hurried on.

* * *

**Invisible Guns. Yeah. I get to make up stuff about Invisible Guns.  
Next chapter is when we get a tiny taste of action. And Mokuba becomes the hero!**

**Next chapter:  
A Wayward Elevator**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	5. A Wayward Elevator

**HERE WE GO AGAIN! I have decided to give you two chapters this week. Here's the second one.  
****I decided to split this into two chapters instead of one because they are two VERY different transitional chapters. This is the second part of what USED to be part of chapter 4.**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 5: A Wayward Elevator•

They were confident that they wouldn't encounter any guards because they assumed that all of them that they _would_ have otherwise run into were all occupying the rooms on the fifth floor, trying to catch Mokuba as he escaped from the vent system. They also assumed that they were all on the vents of the fourth and sixth floors because they might want to station themselves there just in case.

They were relying on Mokuba's sense of direction. He had told her before, as they had worked on the device and bookshelf and cover, that his being blindfolded one too many times had enhanced his senses of direction, location, orientation, hearing, and movement. He was like a ninja as far as senses went, but without the moves or training. He navigated them through the maze of hallways and doors.

Along the way, Flora placed ten expired hint coins just like Luke had taught her to. She only put them at intersections to mark the next turn or path, rather than waste them in single long corridors. She didn't know why she was leaving a trail; they _were_ escaping in their own, after all. But something in her mind and gut, an intuition, told her to leave the trail just in case.

When they finally reached a staircase, Mokuba stopped them. "What's wrong?" Flora asked. "This is the way we came, right?"

"It is, but I'm paranoid that there are guards or cameras or lazer detectors there. And it will also be too easy to get caught on the stairs. We have to go another way."

"But then you'll lose the trail!"

"No I won't!" Mokuba reassured her. "All I have to to is skip the stairs part and keep going. I remember walking the same length of hallway twice. Once before the stairs and once after the stairs. And I remember an elevator we passed a few minutes ago. So I think it means that we can just go to that elevator, take it down, then keep going. So we went down the hallway with the elevator, and if I skip the part with the stairs, I'm just going down the same path but in a different floor, then go down the elevator and keep going. It's perfect. I won't lose track of anything. Come on!"

Flora told her mind to not try to decipher what Mokuba had just said.

They ran back to the elevator.

They pressed the button. The doors opened.

There were two guards inside!

"Hey!" one of them shouted.

"Get them!" the other shouted.

They tried to leave the elevator. Flora screamed. But Mokuba jumped in front of her with his gun drawn and shot four times, shooting each guard twice. Once in the leg and once in the shoulder. Then he kicked them back, making them hit their heads hard against the elevator wall, and knocking them unconscious.

Flora breathed hard and her heart was beating fast from the sudden action.

Mokuba looked back at her apologetically. "Sorry, Flora. I had to do it."

She shook off the shock of seeing a 13 year old shoot two full grown security guard adults and knocking them out. She nodded. "It's alright. You had to do it. Good thing you have that gun..." She swayed and shivered a bit, but would be fine in a few moments. "At least they aren't...are still alive."

"Right..." Mokuba put the gun away and entered the elevator. "Let's go."

Flora pressed the button for the ground floor.

Then she realized that since they weren't taking the stairs, the trail wouldn't go there.

She had only ten hint coins left. But she wanted to save them for the first floor. And she wanted to mark the floor they were on. So...

She reached into her pocket and took out her last, shiny, valid hint coin. She randomly took a piece of tape off of the wallet (which the guard had put there to keep one of the card holders attached), carefully positioned the hint coin over the 5 on the elevator button panel, and gently taped it in place on the button. A sign.

The Professor and Luke would understand it.

As she was doing this and as the elevator was going down, Mokuba was fixing the guards. He turned them so they were leaning on opposite walls and faced them towards each other. Then he took out their guns and placed them in their hands. The idea was to make it look like they had turned on and shot each other. He also ditched the communicator, realizing how silly it was for there to be a tracker in it and knowing that they didn't need it.

They both stood up. They had been paying attention to how many floors they had descended. They were relieved when they realized that they were finally on the first floor.

But the elevator didn't stop.

"Mokuba..." Flora whispered, for some reason. "You counted four descends, right?"

"I did..."

"So if I'm not mistaken we should be on the first floor already, right?"

"We should..."

"We didn't stop."

"I know! But I don't know why!"

The elevator doors opened.

And it was dark.

* * *

**OOOOHHHHH the suspense! What's gonna happen to them and where are they and stuff! What the frig is with the elevator! QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED NEXT CHAPTER!**

**Next chapter:  
Underground Exploration Pt.1 - An Elevation Situation**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	6. UE1: An Elevation Situation

**Here's the week's chapter! Sorry about that! almost forgot!**

**This is where things get a bit more serious, and therefore it is a bit less obvious that Mokuba is abridged. I might start updating less and less because now that we're u-erm...now that we've gone in the elevator, things get more puzzle and card gamed based and I'm not an expert at making up either. So I haven't even written past the next chapter and I need to do that. But I might not think of it in time or have time to think of it, due to school and my other stories. Perhaps what I'll do instead is skip those parts and have them tell it to someone else in a flashback in some later chapter. Which means that there may or may not be a giant gap in the chapter numbers because of this. Not sure yet. But anyway! Enough about later. Time for now!**

**This is the chapter where all of it goes down! Literally!**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 6: Underground Exploration Pt.1 - An Elevation Situation•

The elevator doors opened.

And it was dark.

They exited the elevator and looked around. They noticed that there was another elevator next to the first, about as far away as the width of an elevator.

There was _some_ light. It came from dim cone-shaped lights that hung from the ceiling, spaced about five yards away from each other, and lined the hallways. At the moment, they were in a large room that had about six hallways branching out from it: two that went straight along the wall the elevators were on (one to the left and one to the right); two that were along the wall across the room from them in the same way; two coming out of the wall on the other side of the room, each directly across from either elevator. The walls and floors were concrete, but the floor was a darker and browner shade than the grey walls. Pipes and vents ran across the ceiling, which was farther above the floor than the ceiling on the fifth floor had been. The room was kind of like their own room on the fifth floor, but much more basic. There were four couches along on the left and right walls, two on either side of the room. There was a huge floor rug in the middle of the room, and on it was a large and bare wooden square table. There were chairs at the table and next to the couches and along the walls, about ten of them in total. There was a bookshelf similar to the one they had upstairs that was located between the two hallways in the other side of the room. The room, although it had furniture, looked unused and just for show. They doubted that anyone actually used the room for anything.

Flora finally broke the silence. "Mokuba," she whispered softly so her voice wouldn't echo. "I don't think this is the first floor. I think this is a basement."

"Me too," Mokuba answered at the same volume she spoke in. "Why didn't the elevator stop on the first floor? You pressed 1 the button."

Mokuba took a few steps farther into the room. Flora turned to look at the other elevator. On the wall between them, she noticed a long sign plague bolted up. She turned to Mokuba and pointed at the sign. "Mokuba look! A note!"

Mokuba walked next to her and looked. He read it out loud. "/_REMINDER. Elevators do not go to the first floor, except for the Blue Chute Elevator./_" He stopped reading and groaned. "So none of the elevators in this building stop on the first floor except for _ONE_?! That's ridiculous! Why have a 1 button then?"

"Probably to confuse those who don't work here, like intruders and prisoners." She picked up where Mokuba left off. "/_These two particular elevators cannot be ridden out of the LBFs by pressing the buttons and only leave the LBFs if called from an AGF. From here, pressing the buttons will take you lower, not higher./_" Flora stopped reading to wonder, "What are LBFs and AGFs?"

"I think they're levels of the building," Mokuba answered. "Above and below ground. I think AGF stands for Above Ground Floor and LBF stands for Lower Basement Floor. This is pretty much saying that we can't ride the elevators back up unless they are called from above ground, and pressing a button would take us to that numbered basement."

"Which is why there is a 1 button!" Flora shouted excitedly, but still whispering. "One, whether you are in above or below ground, represents this basement floor. So 1 is probably LBF1."

"Makes sense!" Mokuba took over and finished reading the plague. "/_To leave LBF1/_... Hey you were right, Flora! /_To leave LBF1 and go back to AGF2, take the stairs or find an elevator other than these two. To get to ABF1, take the stairs or take the Blue Shute Elevator, with permission. The elevator to the right does not go above ground/_... And it ends there," he finished.

"Hm..." Flora said thoughfully. "To recap, only one elevator in this entire building goes to the first floor. In the basement, pressing the numbers in these two elevators makes them travel between the basement floors. The one on the left can only leave the basement if called from above ground. There are stairs here. That's all we need to know, I guess! We have to find stairs or another elevator."

"Wait a minute..." Mokuba was thinking hard about something.

"What?"

"I'm trying to remember..." He closed his eyes and though hard. Then he remembered and opened his eyes. "Security cards! We need security cards. I remember stopping before the stairs and hearing a beep. We need to swipe some card to use the stairs. But we don't have anything like that!"

Flora giggled. "Silly Mokuba! I have all of his cards right here!" She reached into the jacket she wore and took out the wallet to show Mokuba, then put it away. "We'll find the right card when we need it. For now, let's just find the stairs."

"Okay. But can we rest for a second please? I'm tired."

"Are you really?" Flora asked skeptically. "You don't seem tired."

"Okay, you got me," Mokuba admitted, pulling a wrapped donut out of an inner vest pocket. He unwrapped it and started eating it. "I just wanted to take a..._mmm mmsh mm_... food break."

"Oh Mokuba you adorable thing!" Flora ruffled his hair. "Just eat it while we walk!"

"Yeah but where are we walking? We don't know... _Omnomnomnmom *chewswallow*_... where we are or where we're going. The hallway system is probably different so I can't guide us anymore."

"Hm..." Flora stopped listening to him and was looking suspiciously at the hallways around them. One in particular caught her eye. The one directly to their right. They were still facing the elevators.

"Something odd about this hallway..." she murmured as she walked over to it.

"What?" Mokuba asked, following her.

"Come here."

He walked over and stood next to her.

"Just go here..." she held his shoulders and moved him to her right. They stared down the hallway. "Take a step."

They both did so. As soon as they did, two panels opened on the floor in front of them and two platforms rose up, each one with a different device on it.

"Huh?" they both asked.

They each reached out and took the device in front of them. When they did the platforms went back down and the panels closed up again.

"What are these for?" Flora asked.

"Um... Well, I don't know why it's here, but this is definitely a Duel Disk!" He strapped it on his arm.

"And I'm pretty sure this is a puzzle recorder," Flora said as she strapped the watch-like device to her wrist, with one hand. "In case you don't know, it records the puzzles I solve and let's me check the stats of them and resolve puzzles I've done before. It also holds picarats and hint coins. What's a duel disk?"

Mokuba held up his arm for her to see. "The thing we use to play Duel Monsters on the go. Kaiba Corp makes them, but this one isn't made by Kaiba Corp. It doesn't have the projector projectiles that shoot out on the playing field. You press a button and they fly out to the ground and project the monsters and cards. But why do we have these?" Then he gasped. "Oh no!"

"What?"

"We're probably going to have to solve puzzles and duel along the way! Maybe all employees using this tunnel have to. I think this means that this might lead somewhere important."

As they talked, Flora loaded her picarats and hint coins into her puzzle recorder and Mokuba shuffled his cards and loaded them into the Duel Disk.

"So we're going to have to solve and duel our way out of here?"

"Yup. But my brother is Seto Kaiba so this will be easy for me!"

"And I know the two best puzzle solvers around, so this will be easy for me, too!"

"How will we find our way? I have no idea where we are or what we're looking for."

"We're looking for a staircase to take us up to the first floor. Remember?"

"Oh right. So..."

"I'm sure we'll find the way. Something told me to look at this hallway, and something will probably tell us which way to go."

They turned to the hallway in front of them. They exchanged glances.

"Ready?" Mokuba asked.

"Ready." Flora confirmed.

They both began walking into the hallway.

* * *

**Next chapter will be a setback happening because some one is stupid and that screws everything up for our protagonists!  
By the chapter title, you might be able to figure out what!**

**For future refference, the the Underground Exploration chapters will be denoted by UE# in the chapter title, so you can find it later if you want and not have to try to remember which chapters had which titles.  
Aren't you glad that I'm one of those authors who titles their chapters?**

**Next chapter:  
Underground Exploration Pt.2 - Access Expired**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	7. UE2: Access Expired

**IM SO SORRY FOR ALMOST FORGETTING! Been working on my other YGO stories! Sorry!**

**Also, I just realized that I've had the whole chapter numbers screwed up for the part two or three chapters!. Ignore the numbers next to the chapter titles, and just referr to the site numbering system. THAT is accurate, not the chapter numbers below. I will get those fixed as soon as I can!**

**I'm starting to run out of chapters, here. And ideas! uuuughhhhh! Scary to think what will happen when I reach the point where I actually don't have any more chapters pre-written! But let's not worry about that for now.**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 7: Underground Exploration 2 - Access Expired•

A minute or two later, they had reached a place where the path split. The hallway went to the left and right and straight ahead. Where next?

"Where to next?" Mokuba asked. "I would expect there to be monster guarding the right hallway."

Flora looked at each path. Then without warning, she tried each path and poked around a few feet in. Mokuba just watched.

Then, while she was examining the path to the left, a red exclamation point suddenly came out of where she tapped. She gasped and looked at Mokuba happily. "Mokuba this way! I found a puzzle!"

"Great! Let's go!" He ran to the left and tried to go down the hallway. But just a few inches in front of where Flora was pointing, he bumped into some kind of invisible wall and fell back. "Ow!" he cried.

"Mokuba, are you okay?!" Flora shouted. She ran over to him and helped him sit up. He wasn't rubbing his head or his back, so she assumed he wasn't hurt.

"Yeah, I'm fine. But what happened?" He stood up and walked over to the thing he had bumped into. His hand hit something solid but invisible. "Why can't we pass?"

"The puzzle, Mokuba!" Flora answered with a laugh. "We have to solve the puzzle before we can pass!"

She turned back to the exclamation point and held her right wrist up, the wrist with the puzzle recorder. The exclamation point suddenly jumped onto the device's screen and started spinning. The device lit up and the exclamation point sank into the screen. A second later, Mokuba watched with wide eyes, the device projected something up. A puzzle.

Flora turned to Mokuba and smiled at him. "I got this." She turned to the puzzle. She began reading and solving it.

Mokuba waited for her to finish and passed the time by examining and reshuffling his cards.

"Done!" Flora suddenly shouted. Mokuba looked up. He saw some weird indescribable things, about fifteen of them, in midair and float into the puzzle recorder. The projection went away. Flora then held up her wrist to the wall. Mokuba fell backwards because he had been leaning against it. "See? We're through."

"Great work!" Mokuba praised.

Flora laughed and blushed a bit. "Thanks. It was an easy puzzle, really. No big deal! Now let's go!" She walked on. Mokuba stood up and followed. "You should have watched me so you could see my 'right answer sequence'." Out of all three of us, mine are the best!"

Mokuba smiled. He would be watching out for those solving sequences from then on. They were probably adorable.

* * *

**~Transition~**

* * *

For a while more, the hallway stayed straight. As they walked, Flora showed Mokuba how the puzzle recorder worked and showed him the puzzle she had just solved. And Mokuba demonstrated how the Duel Disk worked and demonstrated what one of the monsters looked like.

Five minutes later, the hallway turned into another hallway that was twice as wide.

They looked around to see what was there. No puzzles and no monsters.

But there was one thing they saw that was much better.

They had finally reached a staircase.

"Yes!" Mokuba shouted. He ran over to the door to the stairs. He examined the door and the wall around it as Flora walked behind him.

"Flora, hand me the card," he asked. "There is only a card slot and nothing for physical identification like a hand scanner." There was a card swiper that stuck out from the wall next to the door and held it locked. The scanner read 'Swipe IDAC'. There was a little red light and a tiny speaker that would probably say either 'Access Denied' or 'Access Granted'. "What in his cards is IDAC?"

Flora took out the guard's wallet and looked through the cards. She found one that said 'IDAC' and had a bar code to scan. "Here. It stands for ID Access/Authentication Card. His name is Romario." She held the card out to Mokuba.

Mokuba took the card, immediately faced it the right way,and swiped it. _\"Access Denied."\_ the electronic voice from the speaker said.

"What?" Mokuba said. He double checked the card, just in case it was the wrong card. It seemed to be the right one.

The machine's voice continued. _\"You are trying to use your IDAC card to enter this area, ROMARIO. This message is to remind you that, as you probably already know, your card is TWENTY SIX days expired. This message is reminding you to REDEEM YOUR DAMN CARD ALREADY YOU LAZYASS IDIOT before you can use it for access and authentication purposes. Please try another route to enter this area, or have someone with a valid card swipe theirs."\_ The message ended.

Flora and Mokuba stared at the scanner with wide eyes and open mouths. "Seriously!" Mokuba cried. "The guy's card is EXPIRED?!"

"And so long ago that they put this automated message for him into the system?" Flora murmured. "How irresponsible."

"Now what?!"

Flora shrugged. "If only the door had a puzzle... Oh well. I guess we'll have to find another elevator. Those don't seem to need cards to use."

"But even if we find another elevator, it still won't go to the first floor!" Mokuba reminded her. "And the hallway system down here isn't the same as up there, so I won't know where we are."

"Losing the path is a problem," Flora agreed, "but the elevator issue can be solved."

"How?"

She smiled cheerfully. "By finding the Blue Chute Elevator!"

* * *

**Okay, how this is going to work. I WILL go back and fix the chapter numbers. But I will skip three parts of the Underground Exploration. I'll have to, because those parts consist of play card games and solving puzzles. I'm not creative or knowledged enough to make up puzzles and duels and center chapters around them, so I will leave those parts for a flashback. You will see why and what I mean when we get there, as always. I will NOT, however, skip three numbers in the chapter numbering system. The next chapter WILL be Chapter 8. But there will be no UE 3, 4, or 5. Sorry. Although those parts will be missing, you don't really need them to enjoy the next chapters. They're not really plot-based, and all they contain, as I said, are card games and puzzles. You don't need to know what puzzles or monsters are involved to move on with the story. Sorry for being repetitive, but I WILL come back to those chapters at a much later time. For now, just wait patiently for the next chapter.**

**Next chapter:  
Underground Exploration Pt.6- Found The Elevator**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	8. UE6: Found The Elevator

**Hope you enjoyed the April Fools joke, if you saw it!**

**SORRY GUYS ABOUT THE CHATPER CONFUSION! Randomgirl40 reminded me that I had SAID I would be skipping UE3. I had thought that I needed UE3 which is a filler/transitional chapter. Sorry about the confusion with that! UE3 will be one of the flashback chapters. **

**So basically, we go straight from Flora suggesting they find the Blue Chute Elevator, to actually finding it. The card games and puzzles, like I keep saying, will be in the three flashback chapters.  
Untill then, you can have fun wondering what everyone is doing that requires a flashback! Should be fun.**

**Sorry again. Here is your REAL weekly chapter!**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 8: Underground Exploration Pt.6- Found The Elevator•

"Hey, Mokuba..." Flora said slowly. She put a hand on his shoulder to stop him from walking forward. She was looking to her left.

They had solved about a dozen puzzles and played about a dozen mini-duels, then done one combination of both. They were just walking, to save energy.

But Flora had spotted a flash of blue as they had walked by. It could be the Blue Chute Elevator!

Mokuba stopped and looked where she was pointing.

Smiles slowly appeared on their faces and they gasped as they gazed at the blue doors at the far end of the hall.

They exchanged smiles.

They ran down the hall as fast as they could. They touched the sky blue elevator doors and fell to the floor in relief. They had found it.

They looked at each other with smiles on their faces, then they high-fived and hugged.

They stood up and looked around the room. Everything was some shade of blue or purple; indigo carpet floor, blue violet walls, blue furniture (just a few chairs and couches and side-tables and a table, just like in the elevator room they had arrived in), and a midnight blue ceiling. Any other decorations were dark purple.

Mokuba was the first to speak. "So we made it... But I'd like to make sure this is _the_ Blue Chute Elevator we're looking for."

"It's so blue what else could it be?!" Flora walked over to one of the couches near the elevator and sat down. "My legs are tired, can we rest?"

"I'll check the elevator." Flora's eyes followed him and he looked around and examined the blue doors. They were simply sky blue, and looked like a regular elevator. The single call button was also the same shade of blue. There was a tiny note on the wall next to the button. Mokuba read it aloud. "The Blue Chute Elevator. The only one in the building that goes to AGF1, and the only one that doesn't go to LBFs 2 and below. Remember the Backwards System."

"Well now we know we have the right elevator."

"Yeah. But what do you think the Backwards System is? It's capitalized so it must be important."

"I don't know. I might have to think about it."

"Hm... Well let's not waste any more time and let's go!" Flora stood up and moved next to him. Mokuba pressed the button.

The doors opened. They almost rushed inside without thinking, but stopped when they realized they weren't looking at the inside of an elevator. They were looking at another, very short hallway that led to what looked like another pair of elevator doors.

"Huh?" they said at the same time. The hallway was similar in design to the room, except everything was purple except for the doors.

Mokuba ran forward into the short hallway. Flora followed.

He noticed four panels in the walls to the left and right of the doors, two on each wall. "What are these?" Mokuba wondered aloud. Flora looked at them too. She tapped one of them. Nothing happened.

Mokuba looked at the door while Flora looked at the panels. He found nothing. There wasn't even a call button for the door.

But Flora noticed something. She could press the panels ever so slightly. "Mokuba press the panels on the other side," she told him as she pressed the two panels on the left wall.

Mokuba moved away from the door and did as she asked.

All four panels were pressed at the same time, and they heard a click come from each one. The stepped away and the panels suddenly opened up. On each side, one panel slid away to reveal a little alcove with a retractable cord inside attacked to the wall, and the other panel slid away and a small drawer opened up.

"What are these?" Flora asked.

"I don't know but mine looks familiar... Actually the end of it looks like a po-"

He cut himself off when he noticed a little black bar appear above each panel opening. Words started running across them. He turned around and saw Flora had them too.

Above the alcove on Flora's side, the words read: "Puzzle counter. Connect recorder to cord". Above the compartment it said, "Picarat counter. Place picarats in compartment".

They both turned to look at Mokuba's side. Above the alcove, "Life Point counter. Connect Disk to cord". Above the compartment, "Card counter. Place draw pile in compartment. Exclude graveyard".

The words on their respective sides made sense to them.

"Flora..." Mokuba said. "You know what we have to do here, right?"

"Of course," she replied. "I have to put my picarats in there and connect my puzzle recorder to this cord and let it count my puzzles and picarats. On your side..."

"I have to let this thing count how many cards I have left to draw from and connect this thing to my Duel Disk so it can count my life points. Good thing you told me to replenish."

"Yup. And good thing you told me to check all the time."

"This must be how the door opens because there isn't a call button."

"Let's do the stuff then!"

They turned to the panels. Flora took out her picarats and placed them in the drawer. Mokuba took out his cards and placed them in his drawer.

They both pulled the cords away from the wall and found the ports to plug-in their devices. Both devices lit up for a second once they were connected.

The words changed. Now Flora's side said "20 puzzles" and "200 picarats". Mokuba's side read "1500 LP" and "20 cards". The compartments closed up.

They waited for a few seconds in silence, hoping they met all the requirements.

After a few more moments, all four black bars went blank, then all read "Requirements met. Door open."

The two compartments opened with the cards and picarats still there. They took their stuff and unplugged their devices and turned to the door.

The door opened.

They ran over to it.

The black bars disappeared from sight and the panels closed back up.

They stepped inside the elevator which was already there.

The doors closed behind them immediately.

Flora looked around the elevator while Mokuba examined he button panel. As hoped, there was a 1 button, and no other basement floor buttons except for LBF1. This was it. "We found it, Flora. We're almost out. There is a one button."

"Wait, Mokuba... Something about the Backwards System that I've been thinking about..."

"Yeah?"

"Nevermind. It's probably nothing."

"Hm..." The buttons were weird. There was a single vertical row of buttons. Contrary to what one might expect, the 1 was at the top, the button for the top floor was second to the bottom, and the button for LBF1 was at the bottom. What a weird way to arrange them. But it didn't really matter. Mokuba reached for the 1.

But he was too short.

"Oh me and my adorable shortness! Why do I have to be the only one shorter than Yugi? Flora can you press the button for me?"

"Hm? Sure." She reached up and pressed the 1. "What an odd numerical arrangement."

"I know, right?"

The elevator started rising. They silently and mentally celebrated, even though it was still early, and anything could go wrong.

Which it did.

They both counted the floors as they rose. They went up one floor and expected the doors to open. But they didn't. The elevator kept rising higher.

"What happened?!" Mokuba shouted. "You pressed the one, right?"

"I did!" Flora insisted. "Could this be the Backwards System?"

"Maybe we're going to the top floor! Open the doors!"

Flora quickly pressed the open doors button, but nothing happened. They didn't stop.

They were too worried to try one of the number buttons, so they rode in silence. At least they weren't alone. They found themselves reaching for the other's hand and holding on to it as the elevator continued to ascend.

* * *

**Uh-oh! MORE elevator trouble?! What is it with Ninja Guy (that's his name until we actually learn what it is) and frigged-up elevator systems!**

**Next chapter:  
[i dont know the title yet.] So close...**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	9. So Close

**Now that that's all settled...**

**OMG WHATS GOING TO HAPPEN NOW!**

**What happens in this chapter...well... Seems like it was bound to happen. And why would I make this story so short, anyway? I haven't even gotten to the best chapter yet! What IS the best chapter going to be about, you may wonder?  
Well...  
I have no idea just yet.**

**This was uploaded like last minute at night, and I've been editing all day (between this and homework), so forgive me if I've forgotten something...somewhere...somehow...**

**ON TO THE CHATPER!**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 9: So Close...•

They rode for a few more minutes. The elevator finally stopped and the doors opened. They opened up to a short purple hallway that looked exactly like the one on the basement floor, and that led to a blue room that looked exactly like the blue room in the basement, but smaller.

They were hesitant to leave, but did so anyway. Hand-in-hand, Flora and Mokuba slowly walked out of the elevator and through the purple hallway.

As soon as they stepped into the room, the elevator door closed. Mokuba suddenly broke away from Flora and ran back to the door. She took a step after him.

"There's a button, and a little sign with a number." Mokuba told her. "This is the twentieth floor."

"How can that be?! I pressed the 1!"

_\"Greetings, Flora Reinhold and Mokuba Kaiba!"\_ a said a voice from somewhere in the room. They looked around to see where it was coming from, but it seemed to come from all around them. _\"Welcome to one of the rooms of the Blue Chute Elevator! Have a nice rise?"\_

* * *

.

* * *

They looked around the room as the voice continued on.

_\"I have been watching you through the security cameras. And by the way, thanks for stealing Romario's IDAC card. All of his cards are expired, but his IDC has been expired for the longest time. Maybe it will finally force him to get a new and valid one. Thank you. Now you two... Did you think I would not realize that you had escaped? I know how you waited out the guards to go to the fifth, sixth, and fourth floors. I know that it would be impossible to remove the vent cover and put it back. I know that you used the elevator to try to go the first floor. I even know that the bookshelves conveniently are the same height as the space above the door frame. And I am so glad you figured all of that out as well."\_

A screen suddenly lit up on one end of the room.

They looked up at the screen. Ninja Guy looked down on them. The room was dimmed, and they could barely make out any identifying features of his exposed face, but they could see the rest of the room well enough. He seemed to be in some kind of security room. They could see monitors and control panels in the background.

"Well," he said, "Congratulations. You two have solved a pretty complicated puzzle. And won a very confusing duel. Again, congratulations. The fact that two young and relatively inexperienced puzzlers/duelists overcame all that reassures me of the skills your relatives and guardians have. You learned from the best and if you can handle that then the best can handle five times the challenge!"

"Hey!" Flora shouted defensively. "Don't insult us! We're smarter than you think! And don't compare us to the people we know as if we're dumber than them!"

"Calm down, girl. I wasn't insulting you. All I said was that you learned from the best and if you overcame that then the best can do more. It was a compliment. What I have in mind for them is certainly more than five times more difficult than what you went through. Now I think it's time for you two to go back to your room."

"Oh yeah?!" Mokuba said defiantly. "Why don't you come over here and _make_ us!"

"Mokuba!"

"Ignorant child..." Ninja Guy rolled his eyes and stopped paying attention to Mokuba. He addressed Flora instead. "Obviously that is what I am going to do. Did you not think I was watching the whole time? I was having a fun time watching your little escape atempt from this nice little room I'm in." He held up his hands and indicated the room around him. He spun around (probably in a swivel chair). He put his elbows on whatever was in front of him, folded his hands, and rested his chin on them. His eyes, which they could _still_ barely see, looked bored and unimpressed. "You _really_ should have seen this coming. Why _wouldn't_ there be security cameras all over the place? I know _exactly_ where you are. And even if I hadn't been watching I know what room you're in. You're on the top floor."

"The Backwards System!" Flora whispered.

"Yes. Everyone here knows that the floor number buttons in the BCE are numbered backwards. That is why 1 is at the top, not the bottom. Pressing 1 brings you to AGF20, pressing 20 brings you to AGF1. It might sound a bit difficult to deal with at first because you would have to count the buttons until you got the hang of it, but it's actually really easy to catch on to. Oh, and with the elevator itself, it automatically goes down to the first basement floor, LBF1, once the last passenger has gotten off, which is why there doesn't need to be call button down there. It can only be called from a floor above it, and then it goes back to the basement automatically. All you really had to do to open the doors was place a valid IDAC security card in one of the compartments at the end. Not that you had one anyway. The dueling and puzzle system _is_ something that everyone in the LBFs have to deal with. Everyone has gotten used to it by now so much that it's simply another procedure and as easy for them as swiping a card to get into a staircase. Which Romario can't do on his own anymore because he's an idiot. And he also can't enter staircases on his own, either. However, I set up the Duel Disk and Puzzle Counter system just for people like you. Not that you knew that. Hahahahahahah!"

"Thanks for the information!" Mokuba suddenly called out. "It should all be _very_ useful to us later!"

"What?" Ninja Guy asked. Flora turned around and saw Mokuba by the elevator. He waved at her. "What is he doing over there?"

"Hey Ninja Guy!" Mokuba shouted. "Can you see what elevators are on what floor from there?"

"No... I can't... Why?"

"Well, I was just wondering when the elevator was going to get here!" A moment or two later, the elevator doors opened. "Flora!"

"Hey wait! I wasn't done monaloguing yet to Flora about things that aren't even relevant or important to her!"

"Oh I assure you it was all _very_ relevant," Flora said as she ran over to Mokuba. "Thanks for the useful information!"

"No!"

Mokuba and Flora ran inside the elevator and Mokuba pressed the 20 as soon as they were in. The doors immediately closed behind them.

"No! I need guards on the first floor by the BCE pronto!"

That was all that could be heard from the Ninja Guy before the elevator started descending to the first floor.

* * *

**~Transition~**

* * *

They reached the first floor easily. They stepped out and there were no guards in sight. They left the blue room and looked around.

Mokuba stood still for a moment to get his bearings. "This way!" he shouted, pointing to a direction.

He and Flora ran that way.

Mokuba led her through the twists and turns of the first floor until they reached a long hallway.

Suddenly, they saw guards running towards them.

Mokuba didn't slow his pace. He actually sped up. "SLIDE UNDER!" he shouted to Flora

Flora was just barely able to understand what he meant before he slid down on the floor under the guard's legs, and then doing the same a split second later.

The guards were clearly surprised. Flora was just as surprised.

Flora and Mokuba quickly stood back up and continued running. The guards skidded and bumped into each other before they were able to turn around and start following again.

But the two kidnappees already had a lead on them and they were fast and few. The guards were many and traveling as a group slowed them down. Plus, Flora and Mokuba were a lot younger and faster. Also they were possibly a bit hyper from the food they'd had before.

But that was over three hours ago.  
But that didn't even matter. They were still faster.

Eventually, they lost the guards. A small miracle, seeing as the guards should know the way better than Mokuba did.

Mokuba led Flora towards the exit they had come through. He knew where they were going.

Flora just barely had enough time to plant hint coins along the way.

"We're almost to the entrance, Flora!" Mokuba shouted as they ran down a hallway.

They turned one last corner...

And came face-to-face with Ninja Guy.

"Hello, again. Nice try."

* * *

**So close, yet not quite there. But you knew that this was bound to happen, right?**

**But since they failed to escape...well it's pretty obvious who's going to be showing up in the next or in a few chapters, right?  
But now the question is...WHO is going to show up? I'll let you ponder that for a chapter and two weeks.**

**Next chapter is a bit...well...erm...you see one of them...****Never mind. Wouldn't want to SPOIL it for you!**

**Next chapter:  
Back On Lockdown**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	10. Back Under Lockdown

**S****o, the end of this chapter was giving me a little trouble. All I had up to, on my iPod, was when they looked around the room. Having writers block for next chapter, as well.**

**But anyway...Ya so they got captured again. But so what? What's going to happen now?**

**Read on to find out!**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 10: Back Under Lockdown•

Flora and Mokuba looked at each other apologetically as they were carried away, as if it was their fault that the other had been caught.

The people who carried them didn't bother to blindfold them again. It had been made known that they knew the way, blindfolded or not, and could escape again if they were to leave the room. But they weren't going to leave the room, according to Ninja Guy who was walking right behind them.

They took the exact same route that they had when they had first come here, according to what Mokuba had said a few minutes ago.

Flora somehow managed to plant the rest of the hint coins on their way up. Now there were hint coins going from the main entrance to the stairs on the first floor, and from the stairs on the fifth floor to their room.

Which should be useful to their rescuers. If they even had noticed yet. _If_ they could find this place. _If_ they weren't captured first. _If_ they were spared before they came to the rescue.

The guard carrying Flora spoke up. "How 'bout I don't slam ya against da wall on da way there _if_ you can manage to shut up."

She hadn't even realized she had been saying those last four sentences. "I- I'm sorry!"

"Hmph," the one carrying Mokuba said. "You should be. But thanks for stealing Romario's card. It's freaking annoying that he hasn't renewed his card. Keep his card please, it'll force him it get a new and valid one."

"Why does everyone keep saying that?!" she asked. Only two people and an automated message had said it, but it was enough.

"Shadup!" her guard said.

And that was the last word anyone said until they got back.

* * *

**~Transition~**

* * *

Upon entering the room, almost everything was taken away from them. From Flora, the things taken away were the jacket, all of its contents, and the puzzle counter. From Mokuba, they took the gun, the Duel Disk (he didn't want it anyway because it wasn't the Kaiba Corp brand), and the sound device. However, Mokuba was allowed to keep his cards.

Ninja Guy ordered the guards to have them tied them up again, like they had been upon entering the room for the first time. In this, Ninja Guy succeeded in giving Flora and Mokuba a terrible- but deliberate- case of deja vu.

They sat there in silence for about ten minutes before one of them couldn't stand it anymore and shouted out: "Let us out of here right now before I bust out of this chair and totally beat the crap out of you villains!"

"Flora! Calm down!" Mokuba cried

"I-I..." her voice was now small and timid. "I'm sorry... I just... Just let us out of here please?" Her voice now sounded scared. Like _really_ scared.

_A little _too_ scared_, Mokuba thought. _She must be faking it to get sympathy._

They were blindfolded as well, so they couldn't see anything. But Flora heard Ninja Guy (she assumed) walking until he was directly in front of her. She did her best to put on her best helpless and pleading face she could possibly manage to fake.

Ninja Guy chuckled. "How adorable! You're trying to use your voice and face to get my heart to melt and make me just let you go simply because you're asking nicely and adorably! Well I'm sorry to say that it isn't going to work." He laughed in amusement and they heard him walk over to the door. "But I think I've punished you enough for trying to escape. Guards!"

He snapped his fingers and Mokuba and Flora heard two more sets of footsteps moving towards them. Their blindfolds were removed by the guards in the room. Then, the guards headed for the door. "Once again," Ninja Guy said when the guards had reached him, "the knots are simple and you can untie each other. Enjoy each other's company and DON'T TRY ESCAPING AGAIN. IT WILL NOT WORK. Good bye, children. I might be back, maybe with something to drink.

He and the two guards walked out. As soon as Ninja Guy was out of sight, the lights brightened again and they could see the room clearly again. It seemed that Ninja Guy _really_ liked being dramatic! Either that or he just didn't want to be seen in proper lighting!

They immediately started untying each other again. As with before, Flora politely asked if she could be untied first. They really _were_ having a terrible case of deja vu.

Without saying another word, they looked around the room. Everything looked pretty much how they had left it. The only difference was that the books had all been picked up and stacked neatly where the bookshelf used to be, and there was a small stack of paper plates on the table. The food was still there, and had been covered up again. The bookshelf was still wedged above the door. The cover thing was still on it.

They turned to each other.

"I guess we're right back where we started," Mokuba said sadly.

"Yeah...I guess we are," Flora said just as sadly.

"So all of that was for nothing..."

"No it wasn't," Flora insisted. "We actually made good progress. We know the building better, we took out three guards..." She zoned out for a moment, thinking about what Mokuba had done to those two guards in the elevator. She sighed and continued talking. "...gave one of the guards a reason to be responsible and update his cards, we had fun playing card games and solving puzzles, and we even left a path for the Professor and Kaiba to find us! On top of that, I learned a few more puzzles. In the end, we got a lot done today with that little adventure. And at least we weren't alone."

"Right..." Mokuba averted his gaze and he seemed to be zoning out.

"Mokuba...?"

Mokuba didn't seem to have heard. He walked away. He went over to the couch, layed down on it, and hugged one of the pillows. He took out his card-shapped locket and opened it, then just layed there staring at it for a while.

Flora sighed and decided to look at the books.

She found one that was blank and also found a pencil. Relying on her memory, she started passing the time by writing down the puzzles she had solved in the LBFs in the book.

Mokuba passed the time by occasionally eating some food and staring at his locket.

* * *

**~Transition~**

* * *

Five minutes later, the lights dimmed. Then they heard footsteps entering the room. Their heads shot up. They hadn't even heard the door open or unlock!

But it was only Ninja Guy. He held a pitcher of water in one hand and a stack of cups in the other hand. He walked towards the table. Two guards remained at the door, probably to catch them if they tried to escape.

"Nice to see you passing the time," Ninja Guy said. "And also nice to see you not trying to escape. You finally get it. You're NOT GETTING OUT OF HERE. Ever." He set down the pitcher and cups next to the tray of food. Mokuba glared at him when he neared.

"We almost made it..." Flora murmured, not intending for anyone to hear.

He heard it anyway. "Actually, no you didn't. As soon as I ordered guards near BCE-AGF1, I waited by the entrance you were heading towards. You would not have escaped. But it was amusing to watch you try." He walked back over to the doors. The guards took a step backwards outside, while Ninja Guy stood inside between them. "You two do not seem to realize that I can counter every move you make and I have a plan for everything. But again, it is amusing to watch you two try. I guess now that you aren't doing anything, I have time to do other things." He stepped outside.

Just before he left, he turned to Flora. "By the way, Flora..." He took something out of his pocket, then tossed it at her. "You might want this." She caught it and looked at it. It looked like a little USB flash drive, but somewhat different from one. "It contains the data from the puzzle counter you were using in the LBFs. You know how to connect it to the device, I presume, seeing as you knew how to connect the counter to the port in the compartment."

She automatically nodded.

"Splendid. Farewell, children! Have fun!"

He closed the door behind him and walked away, laughing evilly as he did.

The lights brightened again and the guards took their positions next to the door.

Flora pocketed the data drive.

Mokuba quickly poured himself a cup of water, downed it in two seconds, then slammed the cup on the table.

His eyes closed and his fists clenched tightly at his sides, he screamed at the top of his lungs, "_THIS SITUATION SUCKS_!"

* * *

**Next chapter is a bit...well...erm...you see one of them...****Never mind. Wouldn't want to SPOIL it for you!  
****But I WILL tell you that a little bit of abridgedness comes out.**

**Don't be fooled by the chapter title! Nothing exciting in that chapter happens until the end of it. **

**Next chapter:  
Help Arrives?**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	11. Help Arrives?

**HOLARS!  
The only parts of this chapter that I'd had typed out beforehand were the last sentence, the third to last sentence, and the seventh to last sentence. But this chapter turned out a lot shorter than I had thought it would...  
Like I said, the chapter title doesn't come into play right away. Nothing interesting really happens in this chapter until the end.**

**This chapter gets a bit angsty on Mokuba's part.**

**Happy reading!**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 11: Help Arrives?•

Flora's eyes widened at his volume and she flinched.

He calmed down. "Well this is just wonderful," he murmured. Put one or two donuts and cookies and put them on a plate. Leaving the plate there, he moved over to the books.

Flora watched from her seat as he moved some of the books into a stack underneath the door, creating a staircase up to the bookshelf with them. She wanted to ask what she was doing, but refrained from doing so.

He took his plate of food and carefully climbed up the books with it, then climbed inside the bookshelf.

"Mokuba?" Flora finally said, minutes later, in a quiet voice.

She heard a quiet sniffle, then weak and quiet laughter coming from behind the cover. "Maybe. Everything is fine," he said in a cheerful, but slightly cracked, voice. "This is honestly the best kidnapping ever. Especially..." The sound of chewing and swallowing. "...especially the food. And on top of that, I even partook in a children's card game! I even almost escaped this time! Both of us did! Not just one of us! I actually had fun! I can't wait to tell Seto all about this. Best kidnapping ever..."

By this time, Flora had climbed the staircase of books. She carefully lifted the cover, then gasped at what she saw inside.

TEars were running down Mokuba's face. He was smiling, but his face looked incredibly sad. He had a half-eaten jelly donut in one hand, and was holding his open locket in the other hand. He looked up when he heard Flora gasp, but didn't meet her gaze. He frowned.

"Mokuba..." Flora breathed. "Are you okay?" she asked again.

"I'm fine," he said sadly. He rubbed his eyes and wiped his face clean on his sleeve, the one with the donut. He shoved the rest of the donut into his mouth. "Don't worry about me..." he said through a mouthful of half a donut. He swallowed. "I'm sorry. I... should be used to it by now nice it's happened so many times... but I still don't..."

He sniffled again and wiped away more tears.

"Mokuba, come out of there. Please."

Mokuba finally looked her in the eyes. After a few moments, he nodded slowly, then pointed at the plate of food.

Understanding, Flora nodded back. She picked up the plate of food and climbed down with it so Mokuba could climb down with his hands free.

Mokuba closed the lock it and let it fall back in place, then he followed Flora down.

They left the books where they were.

* * *

Flora sat Mokuba down on the couch and kneeled in front of him. She looked straight into his eyes and asked, "Mokuba. Are you okay? What happened with you?"

"It..'s nothing, really. It happens occasionally. It's no big deal." He wouldn't meet her gaze.

"No big deal! For a moment there, I thought you had lost your mind! I'm worried about you!"

"Don't be," Mokuba said, his voice much calmer compared to a few minutes ago. "It just happens. Every time I get kidnapped, I break down like that. I just need to let it out. I'm completely fine now. Stop worrying. I'll be okay."

Flora didn't believe him. "Will you?"

"I will," he said reassuringly.

She still didn't believe it. She sat next to him and put an arm around him.

Mokuba suddenly sat up straight. He looked at Flora, then the hand on his shoulder. He resisted the urge to hug her and remained calm. "Thanks, Flora."

Flora smiled, sensing the change in him. "You're welcome, Moky."

Now that was too much for him. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged tightly, a big smile on his face.

Flora was a little startled by the sudden hug, but didn't do anything and let him end the hug on his own terms.

A minute later, he ended it. "Thanks, Flora," he said again. "I'm glad I'm not alone in here."

"Me too. You're welcome."

He looked away. "But I do wonder when help will arrive, if it'll arrive at all. I guess there's nothing left to do but wait."

"I guess so."

They sat there in silence for a minute or two. Flora helped herself to some food and water in the meantime.

Mokuba sighed. "I'm bored again. Want to do puzzles or play a card game?"

Flora sighed as well. "Fine. Might as well do something fun."

* * *

_~Later...~_

They played three short duels, did two puzzles, and created a puzzle together. Mokuba won every duel because he knew how to play. Flora didn't mind because at least she was learning, they were keeping themselves busy, and it kept Mokuba's mind off of other things. Flora solved both puzzles quickly, but let Mokuba answer by himself. He used a hint on one and two hints on the other one.

All of a sudden, they started hearing strange noises coming from the hallway. Shouts and footsteps could be heard. They assumed that it was the guards, so they weren't alarmed.

But they _were_ curious.

They quickly cleaned up the cards and puzzles, then cleared the books away from underneath the door so they could see what was going on. Within a minute, all the books were back in a pile like they were when they had entered the room.

They turned back to the door and were about to run over to it when...

Suddenly, they heard a voice from the hallway. It was a voice they recognized, but didn't sound like a guard or like Ninja Guy...

"Guys, I think I found them!"

* * *

**OMG OMG OMG! HELP HAS ARRIVED!  
But now the question is: Who has come to save them? It seems obvious, but how obvious is the rescue party, REALLY?  
The next chapter's title might give you a hint...**

**Next chapter:  
The Great British Rescue**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	12. The Great British Rescue

**Hello again! We're back!**

**So...who has come to their aid? It might surprise you.  
And remember how Mokuba has a little crush on Flora? What happens in this chapter might also surprise you.  
And you know how there was a question mark in the title of the last chapter? Don't let the end of this chapter surprise you...**

**THATS ALL IM GOING TO SAY!**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 12: The Great British Rescue•

"Huh? That voice..." Flora murmured.  
"Huh? That accent..." Mokuba mumbled.

White hair suddenly appeared in the barred window. Whoever it was must have tiptoed up, because a second later they saw smiling brown eyes and a faint yellow glow illuminating the newcomer's face.

He turned to someone in the hallway. "Yes! I found Flora and Mokuba!"

"Ryou!"  
"Bakura!"

Mokuba turned to Flora, a confused and surprised expression on his face. "Wait, you know him? And you know his first name?"

"Yes, I do," Flora replied with a smile. "Why?"

"Well-"

"Dark Magician Girl!" someone cried from the hallway. "Kick their asses with your magic and revealing dress!"

"_Hiyah_!" A flash of energy could be heard and seen zipping behind Bakura's head, assumedly aimed at any remaining guards in the hallway.

"Well, what do you know?" a voice said from behind Bakura. "The gay albino actually did something useful."

Bakura turned around to say to someone, "Sod off, Kaiba."

"Seto!" Mokuba shouted excitedly.

Bakura bent out of sight and they heard something going on with the doorknob. Then the door opened.

He had picked the lock.

"Bakura! You were effective for once!" Mokuba shouted.

"Twice, actually. I used my evil ring to find you two. And then I used the lock picking skills of my evil alter ego to unlock the door."

"Yay, Ryou! you did it!" Flora ran to Bakura, jumped into his arms. Then she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Mokuba's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "Flora! What are you doing?"

She smiled wide. "Hugging my boyfriend!"

"What?!1!?1?1! When did this happen! Bakura, I thought you were gay!"

"How many times must I tell you blokes?" Bakura asked with an eye roll. "I'm not gay, I'm just British!"

"How...?!"

"Glad so see you're okay, Flora," Bakura said to her. "I somehow managed to lead everyone here without being involved in a single card game. But I helped Hershel solve some puzzles."

Flora giggled a bit and gave him a squeeze. "That's great, Ryou!"

"How did you even find us?" Mokuba asked. "Neither of us have Millenium Items and neither of us are gay. And the door was sound-proofed one-way.

"I was tracking the picture of your brother that you have in your locket. You know... Puppy and Pride*****?"

"Oh right! That makes sense... Seto!" Kaiba appeared in the doorway (thankfully not smiling) with a Duel Disk on his arm. Flora and Bakura, still hugging, moved aside so Mokuba could reach him. The younger Kaiba jumped into the older Kaiba's arms. "Oh my gosh you found me! This is like the best day ever!"

"Mokuba..." Kaiba held his brother by his shoulders at arm's length. "You really need to learn how to use that Blue Eyes White Dragon handgun I hid behind your headboard."

"Sure thing bro."

"Good."

"Love you Seto."

"K thnx."

"Thank you so much, Ryou!" Flora exclaimed

"You're wel-"

Flora interrupted him when there was more movement by the door. "Professor! Luke!" She broke away from Bakura and ran over to two more people who had entered the room. Layton and Luke. She gave them both a hug. "You found me! Thank you for rescuing me!"

"Of course, Flora!" Luke said. "We would never abandon you. You wouldn't believe how many puzzles we had to solve to get here. My pockets are practically overflowing with picaracts."

"I'll take some of those, Luke," Layton said. Luke handed him some and he put them in his pocket.

"So, where is she?" a female voice asked.

Yet another person entered the room.

Mokuba didn't recognize her. "Who are you?" Flora asked.

"I'm Emmy Altava!"

"I think I recognize your name..." Mokuba said. "Aren't you and Flora from two different trilogies of the game?"

Emmy held up a finger to her lips and winked. "Fanfiction convenience!" she said. "And _someone_ has to help beat up all the bad guys along the way. I couldn't just sit by and let the Yu-Gi-Oh cast do all the work!"

Mokuba gave her a look. Seto gave Mokuba a look. "Emmy, try not to break the Fourth Wall," Mokuba said to her, just as Kaiba said to Mokuba, "Mokuba, how do you know about the Professor Layton games? They're made by a different gaming company."

Mokuba looked up at him with apologetic eyes. "Well, I had to be prepared for crossovers like these..."

"Hm... Still no excuse."

"Hey! I may get kidnapped a lot, but I still have more free time on my hands than some of the other characters do! I have to be prepared for the day my fangirls come after me! And for crossovers like these!"

Kaiba looked to the door, as if waiting for someone to show up.

A moment later, someone else stepped into the room. Yami Yugi. Of course, he was looking all fine and sexy in his Duel Disk and Leather Pants and Millenium Puzzle and multicolored hair and stuff.

"That was easy," he said. "_Too_ easy. Okay. Kaiba, do the head count."

"Shut up, Yugi," Kaiba said quietly to him. He let go of Mokuba and stood up to face him.

"I told you to call me 'Yami'. Since you don't seem to ever want to call me 'Pharaoh'."

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Fine. Yami." He turned to everyone in the room. "Everyone! Get organized according to fandom! Yu-Gi-Oh on my left, Professor Layton on my right. I'm going to do a head count!"

Everyone parted and nodded. They stepped to their appropriate sides of Kaiba in the middle of the room.

Kaiba first turned to the Yu-Gi-Oh characters and counted them. He murmured their names in alphabetical order. "Bakura, Mokuba, me, and Yugi/Yami. Four from Yu-Gi-Oh..." Then he turned to the Layton characters. "Emmy, Flora, Layton, and Luke. That's four from the Layton games." He spoke to the whole room. "Okay. We have eight people here, four from each fandom. We should probably get to escaping now. This place has so much money it makes Kaiba Corp look like it has an equal."

"Right." Layton took over. He walked over to Kaiba and everyone turned to him. "So, I don't really like this option, but the most convenient way to escape would be to split up. There should be two people from each fandom in each group, just in case either one encounters a puzzle or a duel. Kaiba and Yami, you two are the only ones with Duel Disks, as well as the best duelists, so you two should be in separate groups. And to be honest, not boastful, Luke and I are the most skilled puzzle solvers out of all of us, so we will be going in separate groups. It would probably be best to keep the Kaiba brothers together, and I can tell that Flora and Ryou will want to stay in the same group."

At that, Flora ran over to Bakura put an arm around his waist. Bakura put his arm around her shoulder and smiled. Mokuba watched them with a sad face. Everyone was oblivious to what was going on with the younger Kaiba.

"So, here are the groups I think will be best: Seto, Mokuba, Emmy, and Luke in one group and Yami, Ryou, Flora, and myself in the other. Sound good?"

Everyone nodded. Except for Mokuba.

"Good. Let's get into our groups now, then head off." Everyone immediately got into their groups. Layton stayed where he was, for the moment. "Kaiba's group, follow Mokuba's way out. My group will follow the way we got here. Are there any questions?"

"_I have one!_" Mokuba's voice called out...

...from the doorway.

Everyone turned to Mokuba. "Wasn't me!" he insisted. He was still standing with his group.

Everyone turned to the doorway.

"_My question is_," Mokuba's voice continued, "_did you people_ _really think it would be that easy to escape?_"

Everyone watched in horror as two guards appeared in the doorway. One of them was holding a device, a device that Mokuba and Flora recognized as the one they had made to make the guards Mokuba he was in the vent system. The device he had recorded his voice on.

It was obvious to Flora and Mokuba what had happened: they had taken Mokuba's voice device and reprogrammed the words it said.

But the only thing that was obvious to everyone was that they had been caught.

The lights dimmed.

The guards stepped inside the room. The one with the device put it in a pocket of his jacket.

Then, a figure all dressed in black darted inside the room and closed the door behind him.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet all of you at once!" Ninja Guy said.

* * *

***Shipping. Yaoi shippings (AKA gay couples) with Kaiba in them. You get the implications, right?**

**You surprised about Flora and Ryou? So is Mokuba! **

**So, Ninja Guy has them exactly where he wants them. What's going to happen now?!  
And don't get mad that they were caught so soon. Why would I end the story so soon! **

**Next chapter:  
Failing and Falling**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	13. Failing and Falling

**OMG HAI!**

**I might do 2 updates this week because the chapters are kinda short. **

**Everyone keeps wondering who Ninja Guy is! You guess! **

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 13: Failing and Falling•

"My guards are each armed with both a visible _and_ an invisible gun," Ninja Guy announced.

At those words, both guards reached for the guns in the hostlers at their sides. The real guns were on the left. With a swift motion, they took them out and pointed each gun at a different person. The guard on Ninja Guy's left pointed the real gun at Luke and the invisible gun at Bakura. The guard on Ninja Guy's right pointed the real gun at Mokuba and the invisible gun at Flora.

Layton moved over to his group when he noticed the guard on the right  
pointing at Flora.

"Invisible guns?!" Kaiba exclaimed. "Outside of the show?! Well we're f**ked." He said that last word in a mumble so that the minors in the room (meaning Luke, Flora, and Mokuba) wouldn't hear it.

_But Flora has one, too..._ Mokuba thought. He must have been the only one to remember that. No one, not even Ninja Guy or Flora, remembered.

"For once, Kaiba, I agree with you," Yami said. "We should have asked Mokuba and Flora for the laydown of his place."

_In fact, the holster is still around her waist! How is anyone not noticing that?!_

He wished he could remind Flora about it. But there was no way he could tell her without reminding Ninja Guy that she still had it.

_So what are we going to do? How are we going to get out of this one?_

"How are we going to get out of this one?" Emmy wondered aloud, echoing Mokuba's thoughts.

"Ah, yes. About that," Ninja Guy said, "you aren't. Have a nice fall!"

Ninja Guy took out a device from his pocket. It had three buttons on it. One blue, one green, and one red.

Everyone stared at the device, wondering what it did.

Ninja Guy let them stare at it for a few seconds. Then, he pressed the blue button.

Everyone tensed up. But nothing happened.

Next, Ninja Guy pressed the green button.

The floor suddenly disappeared. Everyone screamed and grabbed onto the other people in their group. Mokuba jumped into Seto's arms, Emmy grabbed for Luke, Flora grabbed onto Layton's arm but kept one hand intertwined with Bakura's, and Yami, for some reason, reached for Bakura.

They didn't fall.

The portion of the floor they were standing on was glass split into two panels. Only the floor _under_ the glass had disappeared.

Everyone sighed in relief.

Finally, Ninja Guy pressed the red button.

The glass panels swung away.

The six of them fell down into the darkness.

* * *

They fell down and down.

Everyone was screaming the entire way down.

It felt like they were falling forever.

They felt weightless.

The walls rushed past at breakneck speeds.

It felt like they traveling an insane amount of distance in so little time.

And yet...

...everyone knew...

...there wasn't enough space below the building for that far of a fall...

Was there?

* * *

**OMG WHERE ARE THEY GOOOOOOOOOOOINNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG!?1/!?/!?11!?1  
lolz**

**Yup. Invisible guns. Everyone has one. But you already knew that.**

**So the green button made the floor fall, the red button made the glass panels fall away, and the blue button...  
What did the blue button do? **

**You'll find out soon enough!**

**Next chapter:  
Trapped Together**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	14. Trapped Together

**Here is the second update of the week. You're very welcome.**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 14: Trapped Together•

They finally stopped falling and landed on carpet. It didn't break their fall, exactly, but it didn't feel like their fall needed breaking anyway. That didn't change the fact that they were a bit sore when they landed. And dizzy.

The eight of them stood up and made sure everyone in their group was okay.

They quickly made sure everyone was together.  
Layton, Flora, Bakura, and Yami were still together. Flora and Bakura were holding hands, and Flora still held on to Layton's arm. Yami's hand was latched onto Bakura's wrist, but he quickly let go. Flora let go of Layton's arm and Bakura's hand.  
Seto, Mokuba, Luke, and Emmy were still together. Kaiba released Mokuba from the protective hug the older sibling had the younger sibling in. Emmy did the same; she let go of Luke.

The two groups were not together.

They silently looked around. Both groups appeared to be in square chambers with glass walls. The chambers were about 1/4 the size Flora and Mokuba's cell had been, big enough for four people, but not big enough for those four people to do anything crazy inside. The walls were far apart enough that the two tallest people in each chamber could line up arm span to arm span from one wall to the other. The floors were carpeted. The floor in Layton's chamber was navy blue. The floor in Seto's chamber was maroon. Everyone looked up. The ceiling was an unknown amount of distance above them. They couldn't even see it because it was so dark. The only light they had illuminated the chamber only. It was unknown where the light was coming from, but it was seemed to be coming from the center of the room because their shadows were cast down and out. Flora and Mokuba had no way of being able to tell what floor they were on.

Past the glass walls... empty space. They had no idea how far away the nearest walls were.

The groups turned to a certain wall...

There they were!

They could see the other group's chamber several meters away.

They noticed each other and started shouting for each other and banging on the glass walls.

They could barely hear each other. The walls were too thick, despite the apparent size of the place both chambers were in there was no echo, and the only place for their sound to travel appeared to be up (the only opening in the chambers was above their heads). They could hear each other, but not without shouting.

"Emmy! Seto!" Layton shouted. "Are you all alright over there?!"

"We're fine, Professor!" Emmy replied. "How are Flora and Ryou?!"

"They're fine as well!" Layton shouted back. "Try to find a way to get back! We most likely fell straight down! All we need to do is figure out how to get back up!"

"Of course!"

Suddenly, a big screen lit up on one side of the giant room they were in. Both groups turned to it. Somehow, the light from the screen didn't illuminate the room.

Ninja Guy appeared on screen.

"Hello, everyone! Have a nice fall? I am so glad that everything turned out _exactly_ how I wanted it to! I have something for you to do later, Hershel, Luke, Emmy, Seto, Yami, and Florence. You think you brought someone in the rescue team that I didn't need, and would end up helping you and being in my way. But the exact opposite is true! I need Emmy and Florence as well. I will be ready for you eventually. Later, I will explain what I need from you. I know it has been a while since any of you have gotten any sleep, and I swear on what little honor I have left that I will not attempt anything on you if you choose to sleep. In fact, I encourage you to sleep because it'll give me more time to prepare and it will ensure that all of you have plenty of energy to do what I need you to do... I am watching you in this room, just like I watched Flora and Mokuba's entire escape attempt, via security camera, so I will know when you have woken up all nice and rested. Have fun being trapped again!"

The screen darkened.

* * *

**Yup. So Emmy and Ryou are there for a reason. But exactly WHAT does Ninja Guy need from them?!  
****Sorry to say, but it will be several more chapters until we figure that out. **

**Next chapter:  
Little Talks While Trapped**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	15. Little Talks While Trapped

**Hello again! **

**A BIIIIG apology! I said that at some point, I would go back to UEs 3, 4, and 5. Sorry. Those plans have changed. Flora and Mokuba were supposed to have told the story as a flashback (as three flashback chapters) while the eight of them are trapped. But not only would that not line up and leave a plothole in a later chapter, but I also am still incapable of producing a decent dueling chapter. And I also can't randomly generate puzzles. Sorry. We might not be going back to those three chapters, unless I find a way to fit them in somewhere AND actually manage to write them. The latter will be harder than the former, though. No guarantees. **

**In other news, this chapter is filler-transitional-ish! **

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 15: Little Talks While Trapped•

Flora grasped Bakura's hand for comfort.

"I'm sorry, Flora," he said with a frown. "It looks like the rescue mission failed."

Flora gave him a weak smile. "It's not your fault... But I'm just worried about these glass chambers..."

Bakura knew about that one kidnapping with Clive. He hugged her comfortingly. "Don't think about that. You aren't there. Relax."

She closed her eyes and nodded.

Yami sighed. "Out of all people! I got stuck with Bakura! This day turned out fan-tucking-fastic*****."

Bakura only rolled his eyes and said, "Sod off, Pharaoh."

Flora looked at Yami. "Wow...not to be rude, but your hair _is_ crazy..."

Yami smiled. "It maybe crazy, but Yugi and I are proud of it. I take it that Mokuba told you about us?"

Flora nodded. "He told me a lot of stuff. He even taught me how to play Duel Monsters a bit."

"Really?!" Yami and Bakura exclaimed. "We can pass the time by playing a children's card game!"

"I'm sure that playing a card game would be a great way to pass the time," Layton said, "but we need to remain calm and focused on the task at hand: finding a way out of this chamber."

"Believe me, Professor," Yami said, "I want to get out of here just as much as everyone else does, but we just busted our asses trying to get _in_ here to find Mokuba and Flora. I, personally, would like a rest before we try to do any escaping."

"I...agree with the Pharaoh," Bakura said, ending the hug.

"I already had my break from escaping," Flora added, "but I already tried to escape once tod- erm since I've been here, so a rest from any heavy thinking would be welcome to me. I also agree with...erm...Yugi?"

"You can call me Yami," Yami told to her. "Not Yugi. Yugi is my other half."

"Yes, Mokuba told me about that. I just wasn't sure which one you were..."

"You can tell which one of us is in control by the hair and eyes. And the voice. My voice is much sexier than his."

"Speaking of Yugi..." Bakura said. He took out his cards. "If I'm going to play a card game with anyone, I'm not playing with you, Pharaoh. I'd rather play with Yugi."

"Why?"

"Because he doesn't hate me as much and he won't try to turn it into a Shadow Game or Mind Crush me!"

Yami rolled his eyes. "Fair enough. Yugi has been bugging me to be let out. And I'm tired, anyway, so I'd prefer to rest in my soul room. Go ahead, partner."

The Millenium Puzzle glowed briefly and Yami's appearance changed slightly. He closed his eyes and when he opened them again they were different.

Flora watched with curiosity. She still wasn't used to the idea of two souls in one body. She glanced at Bakura, then stared at the Millenium Ring for a few moments.

She shivered slightly, then looked away.

She decided to look at Layton, who had a hand on his chin and appeared to be in deep thought. "What are you thinking about, Professor?" she asked him.

"Oh, nothing much. Just wondering how much sleep each of us needs... Ryou, like Yami just did, you can rest in your soul room, right? That should give you plenty of rest."

Bakura thought about that. Then he nodded and put his cards away. "I agree. It _would_ be great if I got some rest... Especially in my soul room. Time runs differently in there, so I can spend an hour in there while only ten minutes pass in here."

Bakura looked at his and Flora's entwined hands. He moved his hand away from hers. Flora tried to reach for his hand again but he kept his hand away from hers.

"Ryou...?" Flora began.

"Flora, you won't like this but..." Flora's eyes widened. She knew what was coming next. She _wouldn't_ like it, but she would have to deal with it. "...if I retreat inside my soul room, my dark side might come out to take my place."

He expected Flora to freak out about that, like she had last time he had warned her, but instead she just nodded, a deep frown on her face. "Okay. I understand.."

"Stay away from him this time."

She moved to the corner of the chamber behind Layton and sat down on the ground. "Right."

Bakura moved to the opposite corner, leaned back, and relaxed. He closed his eyes and looked down. A moment or two later, his eyes slowly opened, but they were blank and unfocused.

Flora knew that he was in his soul room.

"You should sleep now, as well, Flora," Layton said to her. "Yugi and I will make sure that the other Bakura doesn't try anything again."

Yugi looked between the two of them- Bakura and Flora- like he was wondering something.

Flora nodded. She laid down on the carpeted floor and tried to relax. It was- not surprisingly- easy, considering that she hadn't slept since before she and Mokuba had been kidnapped.

Which was...

_...days ago?_

She didn't have time to think about it before she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

_**~Meanwhile~**_

* * *

"No...not again!" Mokuba cried. "We tried to escape so this wouldn't end up happening! I'm sorry, Seto."

"Mokuba, you don't have to apologize," Kaiba said to him. "It's not your fault."

"And don't lose hope," Emmy added. "We _will_ find a way out of this. It'll be okay in the end. I promise."

As she said this, Luke ran over to her and hugged her side. As if covering up her own fears, he said to her, "Emmy, don't be scared. We'll be fine..."

Emmy smirked and looked at Luke. "No need to cover up that you're scared, Luke. It's perfectly fine."

Luke broke away from her. "Hmph! I'm not scared!"

"Suuurrreee you aren't..." The smirk faded as she looked over at the other chamber. "I wish I had been in Flora's group. I wanted to get to know her a little better..."

At the mention of Flora, Mokuba was reminded of his trouble: he had a crush on Flora, but she had a boyfriend. Not only was her boyfriend her age _and _British, but of all people, he was Bakura. Ryou freaking Bakura. That hurt a bit.

Mokuba looked over at the other chamber as well. Flora and Bakura were holding hands.

He wished he knew how they had gotten together.

Mokuba moved over to one of the corners, sat down, drew his knees up to his face, and wrapped his arms around them. Then he hid his face in his arms.

Kaiba and Emmy watched him.

"Mokuba, are you okay?" both of them asked him.

Mokuba didn't want to explain his feelings for Flora. So he changed the subject, and also tried to play it off as exasperation due to their circumstances.

"Listen...I'm tired of trying to escape. And tired in general. I haven't gotten any sleep since we got here... How long have we been missing?"

"What!" Kaiba exclaimed. "You haven't slept all weekend?!"

Mokuba's eyes widened. "What?!" he echoed Kaiba. "How long was I kidnapped for?"

"If both of you were kidnapped at the same time," Emmy said, "I would say about three to four days."

Mokuba's jaw dropped. "Oh my god... If we had escaped, we would have probably met you guys when you were on the way here! And then none of us would be in this mess. Not that we would have remembered where to go because we were both blindfolded..."

"Wait... You two _actually_ almost escaped?!" Kaiba exclaimed. "That's pretty amazing. The second time. Who was with you the first time? Téa?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Well, I think it's a step up that _both_ of you almost escaped. Wonderful. Now let's see if all eight of us can do the same. But instead of almost doing it, we should _really_ escape."

"Of course," Emmy said. "But... You heard what that guy said. I'm not sure if we should trust him, but I don't think he'll bother us while we're sleeping. He seems to _want_ us to get some rest. I'm sure that Luke and Mokuba are tired, as well as Flora and Ryou. We really _should_ get some rest."

"Ugh!" Kaiba groaned with a facepalm. "I never thought I'd say this, but I wish that Yu- erm... _Yami_ or Bakura were in here. Then we could probably escape..."

"How?" Emmy asked. "And why them?"

"You saw Yami as he was going through the building. All of his monsters were real, but only when the Puzzle around his neck was glowing. Bakura has a similar item. My Duel Disks only create holograms, so I know that those two have some kind of power that can make Duel Monsters real. If we had that power, we could get out of here using my Blue Eyes White Dragon..."

"Wait!" Luke shouted. "If they can do that, why didn't they do that when we were caught?! We could have prevented this by just attacking the guards with one of the monsters!"

"Oh my god... You're right!" Kaiba exclaimed. He looked over at the other group. "Muto is definitely going to get an earful from me about this when we get back up..."

Mokuba looked at the other group as well.

His eyes locked on Bakura and Flora. This time, they were hugging.

He started sulking again.

_I can't believe I let myself fall for her... How could I be so stupid! Of course she wouldn't feel the same! I never _did_ have a chance! She's older than me... Come to think of it, she and Bakura are perfect for each other... Why did I have to fall for her...?_

Emmy noticed again. She looked at Kaiba and Luke, who didn't seem to be paying attention to her or Mokuba.

She walked over to him and sat next to him. "You look a bit down. Something wrong, Mokuba?"

He looked into Emmy's eyes. He somehow felt like he could trust her... "Uh... Promise not to tell anyone?"

Emmy smile reassuringly. "I promise."

They spoke in whispers for the rest of the conversation.

"I... I... I'm a bit...heartbroken."

"What? Why?"

"Because...I just recently found out that someone I like has a boyfriend."

Emmy's eyes widened. She looked over at the other group and figured out instantly who he was talking about. She looked back at Mokuba. "Who... Flora?"

Mokuba nodded and sighed. "Yeah."

"Aw... Don't feel bad about it. You've only known her for three or four days, so it's probably just a small crush, am I right?"

"I-I think so..."

"Well then all you need to do is get over her, which should be easy since it's only been a short amount of time. It'll only make things worse for you if you don't."

"But how-"

"Well... I'm guessing you like her because you admire her and because of how close you've gotten. All you need to really do is try to change the _way_ you love her. Don't think of her as a crush, think of her as a big sister you admire and care about. Like your brother. You love him, but you aren't _in_ love with him, am I right?"

Mokuba shuddered at that. "Yeah..." _I don't know how fangirls can pair us up. Why are fans of things so weird?!_

"Well then, do the same for Flora. Love her, but don't be _in_ love with her. Does that make sense?"

Mokuba nodded. "Yeah. I think so... Thanks a lot, Emmy."

"You're welcome."

"Do you have experience with relationships and love situations? Is that why you give such great advice?"

Emmy laughed. "Oh no! Not much. Only..." She pointed at Luke. "Don't tell him that I told you this, but I helped little Luke over there with the same thing once. Several years ago. The girl he liked didn't like him back the same way. But he eventually got over her, with my help, of course!"

Mokuba nodded. Then he yawned loudly. He stopped whispering. "Ugh...I'm tired. I haven't slept in like three days..."

"None of us have," Luke suddenly said, following up his statement with a yawn. "I'm tired, as well."

Everyone in the room exchanged glances, then looked over at the other group.

"Looks like Flora and Bakura are trying to get some sleep," Kaiba said, noticing them in the corners and seemingly resting. He turned to the two minors in the room. "You two should get some sleep as well."

Mokuba and Luke looked at him, then nodded. Luke moved to the corner of the chamber opposite Mokuba's and sat down. Emmy stood up and walked over to Luke.

Luke took off his puzzle recorder and handed it to Emmy. Seeing this, Kaiba decided to take off his Duel Disk. They put both items in a corner of the room.

Mokuba leaned against the corner.

Luke chose to lie down.

They closed their eyes.

Mokuba and Luke hadn't realized exactly how tired they were. Within two minutes, both were fast asleep.

* * *

"We should _really_ start thinking of how to get out of here," Yugi said, talking a bit rapidly. "I _really_ don't want to know what Ninja Guy needs us for, and _really_ don't want to do whatever he wants us to do..."

"Okay," Layton said calmly. "Calm down. Tell me something, first, Yugi. Exactly what-"

They heard a sound coming from Bakura. They both turned to him to see if he was waking up.

A moment later, Bakura's hair fluffed up and he grew like a few inches or something. He looked up and everyone there could see that his eyes were different.

Yami Bakura smirked at everyone there.

* * *

_**~Also Meanwhile~**_

* * *

Emmy sighed. "While they rest, we should try to figure a way out of here."

"Obviously. I hope you're as good at puzzles as you said you were. Because you weren't the one wearing the puzzle counter on the way here."

"Don't question my skills. I don't have one with me. I'm just as good as Luke, maybe even better."

"I hope so."

* * *

***The joke is that Yami, in the abridged series, said this right after he said "Oh great, a rejected puzzle from a Professor Layton game".**

**OMG YAMI BAKURA!  
*cue squealing fangirls*  
CALM DOWN! Jeez! Gosh! Frigging fangirls...  
(lolz ironic hypocrite)**

**So next chapter, while the teens/children sleep, everyone actually tries to figure out how they're going to get out! Yeah!**

**About the POV's, I usually write in 3rd person omniscient. So far, the only peoples' POVs I haven't written for are Ninja Guy, Luke, Yami, and Yugi. I've decided that I'll keep it like this for now.**

**Something pretty crazy happens at the end of next chapter...BUT I WONT TELL YOU WHAT!**

**Next chapter:  
How To Escape...?**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	16. How To Escape?

**I AM BACK!**

**Crazy stuff happens at the end of this chapter. OMG OMG OMG!**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 16: How To Escape...?•

_~Some amount of time later...~_

"Yugi, you're going to have to remove the Millenium Puzzle. I need to toss it up in the air and see how far it goes."

Layton had resorted to watching over Flora while Yami Bakura and Yugi tried to figure out how to escape. Or rather, _argued_ about how they should escape. He didn't want to get involved because he didn't know how the relationship between Bakura and Yugi was. He'd had enough trouble with Bakura, and didn't want to start any issues by joining the conversation.

"What?! Are you kidding me?! No bloody way!"

"Who told you that you could be British?! And _I'm_ not really going to throw it up. I just need _you_ to levitate it as far up as possible."

Yugi was silent for a few moments. He didn't trust being around Yami Bakura when he didn't have the Puzzle with him. He didn't trust Yami Bakura regardless. But if it would help them escape... "Okay," he said. "I'll do it."

"Good. Now..."

Flora yawned loudly. Everyone turned to her.

She rubbed her eyes sleepily. Then she let her hands fall and opened her eyes. She smiled at everyone in the chamber.

Except for Yami Bakura.

Her eyes locked on him. She quickly stood up and ran over to Layton. She hid behind him.

"Hello again, Flora," Yami Bakura said to her with a smirk on his face. Flora hid behind the Professor even more.

"Hey! Evil limey fruitcake!" Yugi shouted. "Focus. Are we going to do this or not?"

"Fine. Just know that this is the only time I'm helping you with something. And the fact that we're working together doesn't leave this building. If Marik finds out that I or even my host helped you foolish mortals... I don't even want to think about what he'll do."

"We don't care," Yugi said to him. "I'm starting." He removed the Millenium Puzzle from around his neck and threw it up in the air. It decelerated. But instead of falling back down, it froze in midair. Yugi used as much of his energy as he could to move it higher. It was easy because he wasn't as tired as everyone else was. He kept moving it up and up until it hit the ceiling.

It had stopped several meters above their heads.

"That can't be right..." Flora said when the Puzzle stopped ascending. "Didn't we fall much farther than that?"

"We did..." Layton said. "But...maybe it's another trick?"

Flora stopped hiding behind him. She gave Yami Bakura a look, then turned to Layton.

"This...'Ninja Guy' has proved that he just wants to mess with us," Layton continued. "So far, he has reprogrammed a device that Mokuba made, watched Flora and Mokuba from security cameras the entire time they tried to escape, made a call system for the elevators _just_ for the two of them, and planned for the two of them to be found so that he could trap us all in this exact spot. So maybe the falling was planned as well. He wouldn't have had enough room below the building to put this place in so far down. Yugi, let the Millenium Puzzle fall."

"You'd better know what you're talking about, because it's getting tiring holding it up there." Yugi released his hold on the Millenium Puzzle.

It stayed suspended in the air. They could see the walls above the space appear to look like they were passing by. It _was_ an illusion!

"I guess that proves that," Layton said. "It's merely some kind of zero-gravity effect."

"Dark Bakura!" Flora shouted, "Check the Item distance now! Before it falls back down here."

Yami Bakura glared at Flora. "Don't tell me what to do!" he shot back, making Flora flinch.

"Bakura..." Layton said in a warning tone. "Just do it."

Yami Bakura sighed. "Fine!"

He activated his Millenium Ring. One of the points stood up and pointed at the Millenium Puzzle.

His eyes widened.

"It's only a few meters above us. But that can't be right..."

"Like I said," Layton said, "falling such a far distance was only an illusion. We were most likely suspended in the air for a certain amount of time as the walls around us moved as if we were falling, then the suspension ended and we landed in here. Now that I think about it, we never did find out what that first button did, did we? Maybe that button activated this effect, so it would be ready for us when we fell."

"Why would he do that?" Flora asked.

"Probably to confuse us, especially you and Mokuba, who have been through the building and know the layout of it, about our location. And also possibly to buy himself time. He probably wanted to get that message to us as soon as possible. He needed time to get from the room we fell from to wherever that message was transmitted from."

"Thank you, Layton. That's quite enough," Yami Bakura said. "I know that it's exciting to know about how he confused us, but we really don't have time to care. We just need to get up there."

"And how are we going to do that?" Yugi asked him.

"I have a brilliant idea for how we can do exactly that. It's an idea I'm surprised that the Pharaoh didn't think of before, and Kaiba will totally kill him for not realizing."

"What is it?"

"And I'm a bit surprised that you didn't think of it, either, Layton," Yami Bakura added. "You're supposed to be a genius and master puzzle solver. You couldn't puzzle this one out?"

Layton's eyes narrowed. "Don't start again, Bakura."

"What was the idea, Bakura?" Yugi asked. "Don't get distracted."

"Right," Yami Bakura said. "It-"

At that moment, the Puzzle stopped looping in the space above them and fell down. Yami Bakura sensed it approaching and happened to be standing right underneath it. He barely had enough time to move out of the way before it hit him in the head and knocked him out. But he didn't move fast enough to prevent him from being scratched by it when it fell. One of the corners scratched against his cheek and cut him. He growled in pain and held a hand over the cut to slow the flow of blood.

"Ugh. Bloody idiot! You could have killed me!" he accused Yugi. "And my host!" He closed his eyes and lowered his head.

"What?!" Flora cried. "Ryou!" she momentarily glared at Yugi before realizing that Yugi didn't mean it.

"Speaking of which..." a softer and more accented British voice said. Bakura looked up and opened his eyes. He was Bakura again, not his yami. "Yugi you could have almost killed me!"

"Oh god not you again!" Yugi groaned.

* * *

_~Meanwhile~_

* * *

"What would be really useful," Emmy was saying, "is a way to communicate with the other group without shouting. And we need someone with one of those Millenium Items. It seems like we have all the technology and they have all the magic."

"Right. So what do you propose we do?"

"What we need to do," Emmy said, "is get Mokuba over there and Ryou over here. This way, we have one Millenium Item wielder in each group, we have a 2-way communication system with the other group, we still maintain the 2:2 ratio of fandoms, and we still have one duelist and one puzzler in each group. Mokuba doesn't necessarily need to be with you and Ryou doesn't necessarily need to be with Flora."

"Just one problem, Emmy," Kaiba said. "How are we going to get those two people to switch places? And no offense to either them, but I don't exactly want Bakura over here or Mokuba over there with Yami."

"I suppose you're going to have to deal with it, Seto. This is the most ideal grouping." Emmy's eyes suddenly lit up. "Hm...I just thought of a really good puzzle..."

Kaiba started to groan.

"...but I'll hold off on sharing it for now."

Kaiba sighed in relief.

"And besides, Mokuba will get to be with Flora. So there will still be at least one person he's comfortable with in the chamber."

"Right. But we still need to figure out how to get the two of them to switch chambers. It seems impossible. There's no way of knowing where the floor is in this giant room, so we can't simply walk across the floor to the other chamber. The chambers aren't close together enough to jump from one to the other. And there isn't any way for either of them to get out in the first place. The walls go up too high."

"Well, if the Yugis or the Bakuras use their Millenium Items to make their monsters real, like you said they could, then they could just send one of their monsters over here to help us, or switch Mokuba and Ryou by letting them ride on the monster."

"That wouldn't really be a good idea. Think about it. That weird Ninja Guy is probably listening to us. If we try to shout to the other group to let them know that, he'll hear us- as well as whatever monster we chose- and know that we're trying to escape."

"My god! Seto you are such a pessimist! We don't need to shout! Yugi and Ryou are smart enough to figure that out on their own!"

"Yugi? Maybe. Bakura? I doubt it. The other Yugi? Probably. The other Bakura? Perhaps. And going back to the switching, I don't think that Mokuba and Bakura should switch. I think it would be better if Yami and I switch. I'd rather keep Mokuba over here with you. I don't like him hanging out with Yugi or Bakura. And if he goes in the same group as Flora, it'll be easier for Ninja Guy to kidnap him again. I would still end up in a different group as the other Kaiba and the other duelist, and the people with the Millenium Items will also be in separate groups. It's a much better arrangement. And it'll be safer. Yami and I would probably manage the switch better than Mokuba and Bakura would. Much less risk."

Emmy thought about that for a few seconds before responding, "That sounds just perfect! Even better than the groups that the Professor and I thought of! Good work."

"Thanks. I didn't become CEO of the best gaming company in Japan simply by inheriting the building."

"Never said that you did."

They casually looked at the other group.

"Oh, looks like Flora and Ryou are awake," she observed. Then she looked above their chamber. "Seto! Look! Up there!"

Kaiba looked up and his eyes widened. Some weird thing was going on with the space above the other group's chamber. It looked like how the walls looked when they had fallen down!

"Falling was an illusion!" Kaiba and Emmy realized at the same time.

"This is insane!" Emmy continued. "This Ninja Guy is really something else."

"I agree."

After watching for a few more seconds, they saw the Millenium Puzzle stop looping in space and fall. They saw it nearly hit Bakura in the head. They could tell that it had scratched his face, though.

"Oops," Kaiba said in a somewhat uncaring tone. "The gay albino almost died."

Emmy glared at him and stepped on his foot really hard.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?!"

"You other Yu-Gi-Oh characters need to stop picking on Ryou!" she said angrily. "Now _I_ don't want you in the same chamber as him!"

"Don't give me a lecture about him. He's been nothing but trouble to us from the beginning. Not this rescue, but on the show. Don't act like you know anything about Bakura. You don't even know about him from Flora. You don't know her that well."

Emmy kept her mouth shut before she said something she would regret. He was right, in a way. She _didn't_ know Bakura that well. But that didn't mean that Kaiba had any right to be rude to him!

"I'll talk about this more later," Emmy decided to say. "But for now, let's just try to figure out what to do..."

They both heard two noises. One from Luke's corner and one from Mokuba's corner. They were waking up.

They both opened their eyes and sat up. Luke seemed to wake up faster than Mokuba. They looked at the two adults in the room.

"Have a nice nap?" Emmy asked.

"That was a pretty short nap," Kaiba commented.

"Mmmmhhheehhhh..." Mokuba groaned. "Shush. Are we out yet? Did we escape? Is Ninja Guy dead?"

"No, Mokuba," Kaiba answered him. "We aren't out, we didn't escape, and Ninja Guy isn't dead."

"Aw. Too bad." Now fully awake, Mokuba stood up and looked at the other group. He tilted his head and his face grew confused. "Why is Yugi helping Bakura out of the chamber?"

"What?!" Kaiba and Emmy exclaimed. Luke stood up. They looked at the other chamber. To their surprise, Yugi _was_ helping Bakura out of the chamber!

"Are they insane?!" Kaiba cried. "What the hell are they trying to do!"

"Ryou Yugi stop that get back down this instant who knows how far away the ground is!" Emmy shouted at the top of her lungs.

But it was no use. Bakura reached the top of the glass wall. He pulled himself up and carefully balanced on the edge like he was that guy from Assassin's Creed.

Everyone held their breaths to see what he would do.

He said something that those in Emmy and Kaiba's chamber couldn't hear.

Then, he shouted loud enough for both groups to hear, "Go, Limey Man!" and he jumped away from the chamber.

* * *

***all the fangirls gasp and say "OMFR!"***

**Does Ryou actually have a plan?! Or has he simply lost his mind? Find out, IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!  
(no, the title is NOT a spoiler *whistles inconspicuously and nonchalantly*)**

**Next chapter:  
The Flight Of The Hero**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	17. The Flight Of The Hero

**Hello again! Sorry for the rush upload so late. Been busy today. But here's your chapter! (^_^)**

**Ryou is referred to as "Ryou" in this chapter. And in the next chapter as well, I believe.**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 17: The Flight Of The Hero•

"Yugi! You could have almost killed me!" Ryou cried. He moved his hand away from his cheek and stared at the thin line of blood on it, then glared at Yugi.

"Oh god not you again," Yugi mumbled. "Sorry, Bakura," he said. "I told everyone here that I was getting tired of holding it up! It just fell on its own! I didn't kn-"

"Well no one cares about that!" Ryou interrupted. From that point on, he completely forgot about his cheek. So did Flora, because she was just glad he was okay and hadn't been more seriously hurt by the Puzzle. "Why have none of you figured out how to get out of here yet?"

"Ryou, I understand that you want to escape, and that's what we're trying to do," Layton said to him. "You need to calm down."

"No, that's not what I meant. I meant why has no one figured out the solution to get out of here? A solution that I already figured out while I was in my soul room, and I thought you all would have figured out by now as well."

"What do you mean, Ry?" Flora asked him.

Ryou sighed and turned to face her. "I'll show you. But Flora..." He walked up to her and gently put his hands on her shoulders. Then he pulled her closed and gave her a quick and gentle kiss on the lips. "I'm about to do something that you won't want me to do. But I need to do it to help us escape. You need to trust me and be brave for me, okay? And don't try to stop me."

"Ryou what are you..." She wondered what he was about to attempt. But she didn't press for details. She trusted him. "I'll be brave. I trust you. Just be careful." She pulled him closer for a longer kiss. Then she let him go.

He turned away from her and walked over to the wall closest to the other group.

"But Ryou, what are you even going to do?" Flora asked.

"Yeah, Bakura," Yugi said. "What _are_ you going to do?"

Ryou turned his head slightly, so that Flora only saw the side of his face, and grinned slyly. "You'll see."

He examined the top of the wall. Then he said, "Yugi, give me a boost."

Everyone's eyes widened. Was he about to do what they all thought he was about to do?

"Bakura, what are you..." But like Flora had, Yugi- for some reason- trusted that Ryou knew what he was doing. So without any more hesitation, he replied, "Of course," and moved over to the wall to help him.

"You're short, but you're tall enough to get me up there."

"Wow! You consider me _tall_ enough for something?!" Yugi asked with a wide smile. "Wow! That's...really touching. No one has ever said that to me before."

Ryou smiled back. He could tell that he had just gained some superspecialawesome-ness points, in the other hikari's eyes. "You're welcome. Now stand here."

Yugi moved over to where Ryou was.

Ryou first took out his dueling deck from his pocket, took a single card out of it, put the deck back in his pocket, and put the lone card in his other pocket.

With a bit of effort, with Ryou standing on Yugi's hands and Yugi pushing the Brit up with all his might, Ryou was lifted high enough to grab the top of the glass wall.

"You're not going to jump, are you?!" Layton asked him worriedly.

Everyone suddenly heard Emmy shot at them from the other chamber. "Ryou Yugi stop that get back down this instant who knows how far away the ground is!"

Ryou ignored them, twisted his head around and looked at Layton. "Professor, if you haven't figured out, that's _exactly_ what I'm going to do."

"What for?! Where is there to jump to?! You're not...actually considering trying to jump to the other chamber, are you?"

As they talked, he pulled himself higher and higher on the wall until he could put his leg up on it. "I am! Don't try to stop me! I know what I'm doing!"

"Be careful, Ryou!" Layton said, trusting him, but only because Flora did and she knew Ryou better than he did.

Flora just stood there and watched him with complete worry. Her hands were clasped tightly together and she held her breath to see what would happen.

At last, Ryou pulled himself up to the wall and perched on it like he was that guy from Assassin's Creed. He didn't sway or tremble. He looked totally calm, from where everyone else could see.

"Don't worry," he said quietly. "I know what I'm doing. I will make this jump. Trust me."

He took a deep breath. Then, he pushed off of the wall, shouting loud enough for both groups to hear, "Go, Limey Man!"

"What?!" Yugi cried incredulously. "No wait Bakura stop! I suddenly regret helping you!"

But Ryou was already in motion. His arms and legs held out behind him, he flew up and over to the other chamber, seemingly in slow motion.

Everyone shouted and yelled for him and at him. They yelled at him for his craziness and insanity, and shouted for him that he would be okay and make the jump.

As Mokuba, Kaiba, Emmy, and Luke watched him fly through the space between the chambers, the letters "L-M" appeared on his shirt, fading in and appearing in the same color as Yugi's school uniform. From where Flora, Layton, and Yugi stood, they could see the same letters in the same colors appearing on the backs of Ryou's hands.

He stopped rising, and started to fall downwards. It looked like he would miss the other wall completely!

Then, something miraculous happened. The Millenium Ring glowed. A small glow appeared on the pocket containing the lone card. The glow flared up for a split second, then stayed at a small glow. A moment later, something faded into existence, attached to Ryou's back. It appeared to be two angel wings, the left one being white, and the right one being black. When the wings appeared, the left half of his body (including his clothes) suddenly became lighter, while the right half of his body (again including his clothes) became darker. These wings flapped and took him a few feet higher. He glided towards the other glass chamber.

He put his hands out in front of him once he had almost reached the other chamber. With a last flap of his wings, he reached for the top edge of the glass wall of the chamber.

But he missed and fell and died because he's a British spaz fail.

Just kidding!

He successfully grabbed onto the top edge of the glass wall. Then, gravity did its work and time seemed to speed back up to normal.

The rest of his body bumped against the glass. His eyes squeezed shut for a moment when he hit it. The wings disappeared and both halves of his body returned to being the same shade again. The letters LM still stayed visible.

He opened his eyes and looked inside the other chamber. Everyone was staring at him with their mouths and eyes wide open.

Then he smiled at then and said "Hello there, chaps."

Everyone started clapping and cheering for him.

Again like he was in Assassin's Creed, he pulled himself up on the wall and got a leg up. Once he was up on the wall, one leg on either side of the glass, he shifted his weight so he could swing the other leg over and carefully lower himself down.

But instead, he fell awkwardly off the glass wall and into the chamber.

On top of Kaiba.

"Oh bugger, I'm so sorry!"  
"Ow. Just get off of me!"

Kaiba was on his back, and Ryou was on his stomach, sprawled across Kaiba's torso.

Ryou pushed himself off of the Kaiba Corp CEO with the giant ego and sat on the floor next to him. A moment later, Kaiba did the same.

Brushing imaginary dust off of his clothes, he said to Ryou, "Next time you pull a crazy stunt like that, watch where you fall, okay?"

Ryou sat there and blushed, giving Kaiba an adorably apologetic look. "So sorry, Kaiba."

The letters LM had faded away from his hands and shirt.

* * *

**Anyone else think that Ryou and Flora are so adorable together?**

**Warning! Next chapter has a little "pick your own path" prompt at the end of it! Everyone who is reading this story, prepare to review on next chapter, whether you are signed in or not, whether you are a person who reviews or not.**

**Everyone is probably wondering who Ninja Guy is and what he wants. Sorry, you will have to wait several more chapters for that. This will be a LONG fanfic and a LOT will go on. Hang in there!**

**Next chapter:  
A Suggested Switch**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	18. A Suggested Switch

**YESH! Ryou is Limey Man!**

**[EDIT 6/10/13: I accidentally mislabeled the groupings in the EndingAN. Thanks for randomgirl40 for pointing this out to me!]**

**This is a VERY important chapter in the story. What happens next chapter determines how the rest of the story will play out. I'll explain in the EndingANs.  
(btw for those of you reading Flattening Down the Bunny Ears, sorry about the late update. The epilogue has been difficult to write as of lately.)**

**Hm...I'm so tempted to draw fanart for my own fanfictions, all of a sudden...**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 18: A Suggested Switch•

"Ryou! How did you do that?" Emmy cried. Her face looked totally surprised and shocked, but her eyes were filled with awe.

Ryou stood up and smiled. He took out the lone card from his pocket and held it up for everyone to see. It was the Change Of Heart magic card. "Like I told the others, I was quite shocked to have learned that no one had figured out how to escape already. It's so bloody obvious! It's how we got in here in the first place, so why wouldn't it be the way to get out?" With his free hand, he held up the Millenium Ring. "Make the cards real with Shadow Magic. In this case, I made this magic card real and sort of 'activated' it on myself. I 'became' the card for a few seconds, and that helped me get over here." He let the Ring go limp, and put the Change Of Heart card back in his pocket. As he did, he added, "Of course, it wasn't just the card. It was my own powers."

"What powers?" Luke asked curiously.

"Luke, don't tell me you've forgotten about the powers of Limey Man!" Ryou traced the letters L and M in the air with his finger. "My _other_ alter ego. The one that _isn't_ evil."

"Ooooohhhhhh," everyone said in unison, in realization. Made sense.

"I remember," Luke said. "You showed me. I still can't believe it. What you showed me, I mean. This, I believe."

"So Limey Man saved the day," Kaiba said somewhat sarcastically. "Now is there a reason you almost killed yourself to come over here?"

"Obviously!" Ryou exclaimed. "Haven't you been paying attention! We are going to use the same tactic we used to break in here! We're going to use Shadow Magic to make our cards real, and our monsters will help us all escape. But there wasn't anyone with a Millenium Item over here, so I flew over!"

Kaiba's eyes widened. He turned to Emmy, who was smiling triumphantly at him. "See, Seto? I told you they would figure it out!"

"Okay. Fine. Congratulations."

"Ryou," Emmy continued, "Seto and I also came up with the same idea. What we wanted to do, at first, was switch you and Mokuba. But then we decided that it would be best to switch Yugi/Yami and Seto. Can you manage that, switching the two of them?"

"No, wait..." Mokuba suddenly called out.

Everyone turned to him.

He quickly clamped his hand over his mouth. He hadn't meant to say anything, but when he thought of either him and Ryou switching or Seto and Yugi switching, he couldn't help but speak up to say that he wanted the first option. But he shouldn't have. He didn't need to be in the same chamber as Flora... Ryou did...

But now that he had spoken up, he _had_ to say something, or else it would raise suspicion. And either way, he needed to tell Flora about the invisible gun. Quietly. And he wanted to be in her group to show her how it worked. But he didn't want anyone else to know that before Flora did.

"What is it?" Emmy asked him.

"Uh... I uh..." he began nervously. "I think that I should switch with Bakura instead." He had said it.

"Why?" Ryou asked him.

"Uh... Cuz... You would only have to carry one person. Less weight... And fewer trips. Right?"

"Ah," Emmy said. "He's right." She turned to Kaiba. "So my arrangement _was_ more ideal. At least, now it seems so."

"But the end result of my arrangement will be better," Kaiba insisted.

"My idea is more convenient," Emmy restated.

"My idea in itself is more ideal," Kaiba countered.

"My grouping is much more comfortable for everyone."

"My grouping is safer and will allow for a more affective escape."

"My grouping involves two people switching that are already willing and ready to switch."

"My grouping makes sure that one person familiar with the building is in each group."

"Will you two just stop arguing and decide who is going to switch already?!" Luke said. He looked like he was starting to get irritated. "Do we really have time to argue about it? I don't think so. Let's just decide and get it over with!"

"I agree with Luke," Ryou said. "Decide now. Who should switch? Yami and Seto or Mokuba and myself?"

"How about we vote on it," Emmy proposed. "There are five people in here. Only one arrangement can win."

"Yes, that would be fine," Ryou said. "So, who votes that Mokuba and I should switch?"

Some of them raised their hands...

* * *

**Who do YOU think should switch? Think about it.**

**Let me give you some incentive/reasons for voting:  
~If Yami and Kaiba switch, Yami and Emmy (the two people who didn't have any personal reason to help the rescue parties) are in the same chamber, and Kaiba and Layton (the leader of each fandom's respective rescue parties) are in the same chamber. Kaiba is right, it WILL be a more ideal group as far as each person's role goes. It's a lot easier for both of the kidnappees to be captured again if they are in the same group, which is what will be if Mokuba switches with Ryou.  
~However, if Mokuba and Ryou switch, Mokuba gets to be in the same chamber as Flora, who he knows well. And there's that situation about the crush on Flora... Only Mokuba knows about the invisible gun. Although Ryou won't be with Flora, was it really a good idea to have Yami Bakura in the same group as her, anyway?**

**There are a lot of interesting things that could happen with either of these arrangements. I am personally hoping that one switch will be chosen over the other because I have more ideas for it, but I will work with whatever arrangement is voted for most.**

**I will update the Saturday AFTER this weekend, so on June 22. I will count up the votes by either the end of this week or Wednesday of next week, depending on how many votes I get by those times. **

_EVERYONE_ reading this story should vote, even if you aren't the type of person who likes to review or even if you aren't signed in. Even the "guest" readers should review. It'll help be determine how the story should go from now on. If I don't get enough votes by next Wednesday (at least 7 or 9), this story will not continue and the chapter will hold off until the following week, or until I get enough votes.

**I WOULD put a poll up on my profile, but not everyone votes on polls, people who are reading the story might not vote on it, people who aren't reading the story might vote on it, and it's easier and more convenient to vote in a story review than to vote on a profile poll, especially when on a mobile device. **

**SO VOTE! Who should switch? These will be the groups after each switch:**

**Mokuba and Ryou switch:  
Kaiba, Bakura, Emmy, Luke  
Yami, Mokuba, Layton, Flora**

**or**

**Kaiba and Yami switch:  
Yami, Mokuba, Emmy, Luke  
Kaiba, Bakura, Layton, Flora**

**Vote! And may the best Suggested Switch win!**

**Next chapter:  
Switching It Up**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	19. Switching It Up

**It has been three weeks and we are back! Only like 4 people voted. it was 3 to 1, but I wanted at least 5 people to vote. But it's not a popular crossover, so not many people see this fic anyway... That's okay. I decided to give you the chapter. Sorry for taking so long! Besides the voting, I've been busy with summer homework and cleaning and whatnot. But we're back!**

**Let me know if anything doesn't line up or something. I had to finish the editing for this in under an hour. Well it was already edited but I had to piece it together and get rid of the other version in under an hour. It should be fine, but just let me know if I messed up some where, kay?  
Kay.**

**Thanks to everyone who voted. The results of the voting...**

**WILL BE REVEALED IN THE CHAPTER!**

**How I did this was I wrote two versions, one for each switch option, and worked on them together. The one that won is the one I fully site-edited.  
****Thanks again to everyone who voted! Let's see where the story goes from here! **

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 19: Switching It Up•

"So, who votes that Mokuba and I should switch?" Bakura asked. Everyone—including Bakura—voted.

Three of them raised their hands.

Thus, the majority voted for Bakura and Mokuba to switch chambers.

Mokuba, Emmy, and Luke had voted for Mokuba and Bakura to switch. Bakura and Kaiba had voted for Yami/Yugi and Kaiba to switch.

"It's settled, then," Bakura said. "Mokuba and I are switching groups. Thank you, Luke, for swaying the vote."

"What?! How did _I_ sway the vote? I'm not the only one who voted."

"Everyone's vote was obvious except for yours. Now enough small talk. Let's get you over there, Mokuba. Are you ready?"

Mokuba eyed Bakura warily. He didn't really want to risk his life by riding with Bakura across empty space of an unknown size to the other chamber. Especially since Seto didn't believe in magic, especially the Shadow Magic Bakura was using.

But it would help, so he was going to do it.

"Ready," Mokuba said at last. "Let's do this."

"Okay. I'd rather be airborne before I try to pick you up, so give me a moment. Everyone back up and give me space."

Everyone in the chamber moved to a different corner. Mokuba backed into the corner that the Duel Disk and puzzle recorder were in, and Kaiba and Luke were in adjacent corners to his, so he passed each person their respective device.

Bakura closed his eyes. The Millenium Ring glowed again. The his pocket started glowing again. A moment later, the wings faded into sight, the left half of his body brightened, and the right half of his body darkened. The letters LM did not appear again. Unlike last time, his hair changed as well. The hair on the darker half of his body fluffed up a bit. His face—excluding his mouth—on that side changed as well. This was more apparent when he opened his eyes...and his right eye looked like his yami's eye.

Everyone gasped and backed away, forgetting that they were in the corners and couldn't really back away to anywhere.

"Don't worry," Bakura said, in his own voice. "I'm in control. It's only the effect of the card. I only _look_ like my yami." He spread out his wings. They reached about as wide as his arm-span. It was good that he had asked everyone to move back. He flapped his wings and hovered a few inches off the floor of the chamber.

He turned to Mokuba. "Okay. I'm ready. You can hold on to me if you need to, but be mindful of my wings." He held his arms out.

Mokuba looked at his brother expectantly, as if waiting for his approval. Kaiba nodded at Mokuba, as if giving the expected approval. Mokuba nodded back and ran over to Bakura. He jumped into the Brit's arms and held onto him.

Bakura wrapped his arms securely around Mokuba, then flew a bit higher.

"If you drop him, I'm suing," Kaiba warned Bakura.

"I won't drop him," Bakura reassured Kaiba.

They flew higher. Once they were clear of the chamber, everyone moved away from the corners.

"Be careful, bro," the older Kaiba called up to the younger Kaiba.

"Tell that to him," Mokuba replied, tilting his head at Bakura.

They watched Bakura fly up and over to the other chamber.

Bakura looked down and saw Flora smiling up at him, her hands clasped and her eyes filled with wonder. He smiled back. He noticed that the other Yugi had come out and taken over. And, because of his Millenium Item, he also was able to see Yugi in his spirit form next to Yami. He smiled at the other hikari.

Yugi didn't smile back with his mouth, but smiled with his eyes instead.

He hovered over the chamber. "Back up, everyone," he warned.

Like they had in the previous chamber, everyone backed into the corners to give him space.

Bakura descended slowly.

Bakura waited until his feet touched the ground to let go of Mokuba. At the same time, Mokuba also let go of Bakura only when they touched the ground.

Mokuba stepped away from Bakura. Flora ran over to Bakura and hugged him tightly, while being mindful of his wings. "Oh my gosh, Ryou, that was amazing!" she praised. "I was so worried but you did it! How did you do that?" She stepped away so he could answer, but then she saw his face. She was on the light side, but the way she was angled and the way he had turned his head to look at her made her able to see the right side of his face, the one that looked like Yami Bakura's face. "Ryo! Bakura isn't in control of your face, is he?!"

Bakura ran a hand gently across his right cheek, then shook his head. "No. He isn't. It's just an effect of the card."

"The card you put in your pocket before you jumped?"

Bakura nodded. "Exactly."

"So you made the card real and activated it on yourself!" Yami suddenly exclaimed.

"I did."

"Oh yeah," Mokuba said. "Seto would totally kill you for not realizing that you could do that sooner," he said to Yami. "Also, Bakura and I are switching groups." He looked at Bakura expectantly, trying to suppress his jealousy at the fact that Flora was hugging him.

Flora's eyes widened. She looked at Bakura, her eyes asking for an explanation. "What? You're going back over there? Why?"

"Because we voted on it," Bakura explained. "We want to use our Monsters to escape by making them real, but there needs to be someone with a Millenium Item in the other group. I'll be that someone with the Millenium Item."

"Oh..." Flora said sadly.

"And don't worry about me at all. I'll make it back over safely, we'll meet up again when we get out of the glass chambers, and you even have Mokuba to keep you company. Don't worry about a thing."

Mokuba smiled faintly at the fact that he would be keeping Flora company while Bakura was on the other side.

Flora also smiled faintly. "Alright. At least I'll have Mokuba."

"I don't want to waste any more time," Bakura said to Flora. "I'll head over now so I can get back to you sooner. Alright?"

"Mmhmm," Flora said with a small nod. "Be careful, darling."

Bakura moved his face close to Flora's and put a hand under her chin, tilting her head upwards slightly. "I will, sweetie," he murmured back to her.

Their lips met gently a moment later. Both Brits closed their eyes as they kissed.

Mokuba had to hold his wrist behind his back practically had to claw into it with his nails to keep himself from sticking his finger in his mouth and pretending to gag.

Yes, Moki is just that jealous.

The kiss ended five seconds later and they opened their eyes.

Bakura stepped away from Flora. "Ready to go. Everyone, move to the corners again."

Everyone obeyed, backing into the corners they had backed into when he had first landed in that chamber.

Bakura flapped his wings and took to the air. He flew higher than the chamber's walls, then started flying over to the other chamber.

Everyone in Emmy and Luke's chamber saw Bakura coming they immediately backed into the corners again to give him space.

Bakura flew over the chamber, then stopped flapping his wings and positioned them so he would glide down slowly.

While Bakura was flying over to the other chamber, and while Flora was watching Bakura closely, Mokuba was thinking about how he would get to possibly ask Flora about her and Bakura.

_And_ he would get to tell her about...

"The invisible gun!" Flora suddenly shouted.

* * *

**OMG! Yes I totally just made that happen.**

**Flora was (or is) going to learn about the invisible gun either way. It's just a matter of when and how. At first, I wanted the other switch to win. I had more written for it and I had more ideas and little details I liked, such as Kaiba causing Ryou to almost crash. And I'm doing this fanfic mainly from the POVs of Flora and Mokuba so I didn't really want them in the same chamber. But this one has more that can happen anyway, and the stuff that I wanted to happen with the other switch can be also incorporated into this switch.**

**I made it seem like the plot will be drastically affected by who switched. I lied a bit. The plot, to be honest, will go the way it should regardless of what grouping they are in. What is affected by the grouping are how they get out of the chambers and what everyone knows/does upon exiting. In other words, the plot is not affected, the STORY is. Think about it. Mokuba's crush never had any impact on the plot, but it was part of the story. **

**As of right now, I have a well thought-out plot involving Ninja Guy. When I first started this story, I just wanted Flora and Mokuba to get kidnapped and escape, then try to do some kind of thingy where they work on self defense and try not to get kidnapped anymore. It's similar to what I did in Who Are You, with Canada and Ryou trying to get confidence and noticed more. Obviously, this story has grown past that. I didn't have anything really thought of for Ninja guy, other than he kidnapped them and is holding them for ransom. Now, Ninja Guy actually has a backstory. I thought it out the other day and I'm 100% sure that it is epic and complicated and confusing and plot-twisty enough at levels only reachable in fanfiction. That's right. Ninja Guy's story is at fanfiction-worthy levels of complication and WTFery. This is one of those times when I feel compelled to change the story description. Which I did, in case you haven't noticed.  
So the story behind Ninja Guy, why they were kidnapped, and why certain people came to rescue them is a LOT more complicated than it seems! I know a LOT of people will enjoy that plot part when it comes. We still have a few more chapters until then.**

**So...to sum up this EndingAN: this story is about to get VERY complicated in a LOT of ways.**

**Hopefully, next chapter will be up by the end of the week. But no guarantees because I have a lot of stuff to do this week. I'll try, though! (^_^)**

**Next chapter:  
[TBD] (I haven't thought of a title yet.)**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	20. After The Switch

**So here's the chapter I promised! You're welcome!**

**Hopefully, we will go back to regular weekly updates! But I don't have a lot of chapters after this planned out. It'll be pretty much me making the week's chapter DURING that week, and then site-editing it the day before I update. In fact, that's almost exactly what I did for this chapter here!  
But I'll try to stick to regular updates.**

**So now!, we figure out how things are going to be settled in the two chambers before they try to escape from them.**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 20: After The Switch•

Mokuba's eyes widened. _She must have suddenly remembered_, he thought. _I hope she keeps quiet..._

She looked at Mokuba. He shook his head rapidly and put a finger to his lips, trying to tell her not to say anything. She opened her mouth but closed it again, took the hint, and kept quiet.

"What about an invisible gun?" Yami asked.

"Nothing," Mokuba said. "Flora was probably just remembering..."

"That..." Flora continued. "People don't take invisible guns seriously on Yu-Gi-Oh so someone probably could have distracted the guards and Ninja Guy by making fun of them. Why didn't we think of that?"

"Because one of us would have told you to shut up and not argue with the people holding the guns," Yami replied. "He knows that we know how real those guns are outside of the show. He knows that Bakura would have told you to keep quiet."

"Indeed," Layton said. " And besides, they had real guns as well. We definitely didn't want to give them a reason to use them." He put a hand on his chin in thought. "It's unnerving how much he knows about all of us. I'm wondering what connection he has to each of us and what he would want us for."

"So am I," Yami said. "I keep having this odd feeling that he's someone I know personally."

"I feel the same way," Layton agreed. "But whoever he is, we can't let him keep us here. We have to escape before we find out what his intentions are. We need to think of a plan of action. Now, Yami, We should start discussing what monsters we should use to escape."

"Of course." Yami took out his and Yugi's deck. He faced the wall and kneeled on the ground a foot away from it. "Come down here so we can talk."

Layton hesitated for a split second, then he joined Yami on the ground.

"So where should we start..." Yami began.

While they talked, Mokuba pulled Flora over to a corner of the chamber. He cupped a hand around his mouth and indicated for her to bring her face close. She leaned down and put her ear near his mouth.

"Flora," he whispered, "I have to teach you how to use the invisible gun." Flora looked a bit shaken when he said that. It must have been because of how he had shot those two guards earlier. "You'll need to know how to use it later, I'm sure. But don't want to teach you how to use it right now because I don't want anyone knowing you have it just yet. So I'll just tell you what it can do now and teach you _how_ to use it later, got it?"

"Got it," Flora whispered back.

"You still have the gun though, right?"

"I do," she said. She moved her hand to her side and felt for the gun that was visible to her but not Mokuba. It was still there in the holster, unused.

"Good.

"So while they're talking, I'll tell you _what_ it can do, but not how to make it happen. First of all, it can..."

As they talked, Yami and Layton ignored them and talked about the cards.

* * *

_~Meanwhile~_

When Bakura had landed in the chamber, the card's effects had faded away.

"I hope that Flora will be okay," he said worriedly.

"She'll be fine," Emmy reassured him. "The Professor will take care of her."

"I know. But I'm worried about her being with Mokuba..."

"Well if they've managed to take care of each other so far, I'm pretty sure he'll do a fine job of taking care of her now."

"Right..." Bakura mumbles skeptically. "I wish I knew what had happened to them before we got there... Kaiba... Will Mokuba be able to help her out if trouble arises and she can't help herself for whatever reason?"

Kaiba's eyes widened. He looked over at the other chamber, at Mokuba. "Well, although Mokuba is usually absolutely useless, he's not worthless. When he's needed and relied on, he _will_ pull through. He's not good—actually he's terrible—at helping himself, but he can help out others just fine, when he needs to."

Bakura sighed in relief. "Good to know."

"How the hell did you and Flora get together anyway?" Kaiba asked Bakura, looking back at him.

Bakura smiled and blushed. "It's...a bit of a long story."

Kaiba folded his arms and gave Bakura an expectant look. "We got time."

"Actually, Seto," Emmy said, "we _don't_ got time. We need to focus on escaping. When we all get out of here, we can share stories on the way out of the building or on the way back home. For now, let's focus on escaping."

"Oh," Bakura said. "Yes thank you, Emmy. We _do_ need to get out of here. Kaiba, let me see your deck so we can talk about what monsters we can use to escape."

Kaiba narrowed his eyes. "Don't you think _I_ would know which monsters would be useful better than you do?"

"I know my limits. I know what I can manage and what I can't."

_"Actually, no you don't. _I_ do."_

Bakura's eyes widened. "Oh no. Please don't. Not now. I can do this I swear!"

_"Bull crap."_

"Fine, then just _tell_ me what to do."

_"It's not that simple."_

Emmy, Luke, and Kaiba all eyed Bakura in confusion, wondering who he was talking to.

"Yami, _please_ just let me do this!" Bakura pleaded.

Emmy's eyes widened. "Wait a moment, you're not letting the other Bakura out, are you?!"

"I don't want to," Bakura said to her, "but he wants out."

_"You _do_ realize that I can easily take control from you, right? I don't need to ask nicely."_

Bakura sighed. "I know."

Without warning, Bakura's hair suddenly fluffed up and his head bowed. When he looked up again, his face had changed.

"Oh my money, it's you," Kaiba said in annoyance.

"Yes, Kaiba," Yami Bakura said. "It's me. Deal with it."

"Fluffy," Luke said venomously to Yami Bakura.

Yami Bakura glared at him. "Shrimp."

"Hey! Stop calling me that!"

"You're the exact same height as Yugi. That makes you small."

"And your hair is Fluffy." Luke folded his arms. "That makes you a kitten. A rabid one, at that."

"Luke," Emmy said in a warning tone. "That's enough. Don't start."

"Yeah, Luke," Yami Bakura said mockingly. "Don't start."

Luke glared at Bakura for a moment.

Bakura glared back.

"So... Bakura," Emmy asked carefully. "Any reason why you decided to take over?"

Yami Bakura turned his attention to her. "Oh yes. Because my host doesn't know what he's doing as well as I do. I know more about certain Duel Monsters, I know the Millenium Ring better, and there's a less chance of screwing up if I'm in control."

"Oh...kay?"

The evil Bakura moved over to one of the walls and sat down on the ground leaning against it.

_"By the way, Ryou,"_ he said to Bakura through their mind link, _"the distance should be close enough that you can project over to your girlfriend's chamber."_

Bakura projected himself outside of his body, appearing next to his yami in spirit form. His eyes lit up and he was smiling. "Really? Thanks for telling me!"

He disappeared. Seconds later, he reappeared in the same place. He was frowning and pouting. "Yami...you lied."

The dark smirked evilly at him. "I know I did."

"You're so mean to me!" he said before retreating into his soul room again.

Yami Bakura looked up at Kaiba. "Now Kaiba, hand me your deck. I need to see what we can use from it."

Kaiba gave Yami Bakura a mistrusting look, but reached into one of the inside pockets of his awesome and weird-looking coat thing and took out his Duel Monsters deck. "You lose or steal anything, I will kill you. And then I will murder you. And then I will sue your host. In that order."

"Pfft. Go ahead and sue him. His father makes plenty of money."

"And what if I murder you?"

Yami's Bakura's face turned all insane and evil. "You can't kill me because I am the Shadows and the shadows never die mwahahahahaaaa!"

Everyone gave him an odd and freaked out look.

His face returned to normal and he held out his hand expectantly.

Kaiba placed his deck into the hand.

"Sit next to me so we can talk about this."

Kaiba reluctantly moved over to where Yami Bakura was sitting and sat next to him on the ground.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Spirit," Luke randomly said.

"I do," Yami Bakura said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Could you just shut up for five minutes and let me do my thing?"

"No!" Luke exclaimed. "I don't trust you. Why are you helping us anyway? What do _you_ have to gain? Why do you care?"

Yami Bakura rolled his eyes. "First of all, obviously, I'm trapped in here as well so I want to get out just as much as you do. And even though I could care less about Flora, my host cares and I'm obligated to help him out solely because we share a body."

"Hmph. I still don't trust you."

"Luke, we can argue more later. Right now—"

"Just let him do what he has to do," Emmy finished for him.

"Thank you, Emmy. Now, moneybags..." He and Kaiba started talking about their cards and what they were going to do.

* * *

**So yesh! **

**Next chapter is mostly filler. The interesting and important stuff happens more close to the end. THAT IS! only if I don't deem the chapter to be too long, and decide to split it.  
Then, the whole chapter will be filler XD**

**Next chapter:  
Arguing Over Children's Trading Cards**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	21. Arguing Over Children's Trading Cards

**And so the theories about Ninja Guy continue to be speculated!**

**This chapter was a bit of trouble because I needed to look up a LOT about the cards Bakura, Kaiba, Mokuba, and Yugi have. But I managed it!  
I hope everything lines up okay. This is sort of a dueling chapter, if you look at it that way.**

**OMG! Thanks to supersexyghotmew95 for reminding me to work on this. I had about 25% of this typed out yesterday afternoon, and worked all rest of the afternoon and night on it. I did a LOT more than I intended for there to be in this chapter. This chapter will be long. It has a LOT more action than I originally intended.**

**On the bright side, now we know that I can write A LOT in only a few hours. This knowledge will act as my safety net from now on when I forget to work on a chapter *nervous laugh* (^7^'(**

_I do not own the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game or show, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, Duel Monsters, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 21: Arguing Over Children's Trading Cards•

_~In Yami's chamber...~_

Layton began. "So, there are several criteria that the monster we use will have to have. As I list these criteria, you take out the monsters that _don't _have them."

Yami nodded. "Okay." He put all of his cards on the floor in an 8x5 grid. He took out the trap and magic cards. And put them in a pile next to him, away from Layton so they wouldn't get confused.

"First of all, this monster will need to be able to fly so it can reach the top of this giant room we are in."

"Okay... Non-flying monsters are out." Yami picked up all of the monsters that were unable to fly and put them in a pile between him and Layton. Including Kuriboh. "Kuriboh, you are always useless." Yami could practically see the card itself frowning. "Next?"

"They have to be able to carry more than one person."

"Why? Why can't we just have multiple monsters each carrying one person? Then we can just use those monsters when we get out to help us escape."

"I'd rather keep all four of us as close as possible. Especially Flora and Mokuba. Them being in the same group is risky enough because Ninja Guy can capture them both at the same time. If the two of them are together, I want both of us to be together with them."

Yami raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure about that? Because more monsters equals more power and more protection. Also, I want to show off to Kaiba."

"Could you really not focus on that right now? We have to focus on this."

Yami sighed. "Okay fine. You're right. Sorry. But I still think we should have multiple monsters."

"What if Mokuba, Flora, and I don't know how to control and guide those monsters? And your attention will be divided if you have to control four at once, won't it?"

Yami looked slightly insulted. "I'm the King of Games. Controlling four monsters at once is nothing compared to controlling an Egyptian God card. I can handle it."

"Yami, listen. I know you can handle it. I'm trying to keep Flora and Mokuba safe. I'm not sure if you fully understand that. We have to use a monster that can carry four people at once."

Yami thought about it for a few seconds. Then he sighed again. "Fine. Sure. Whatever you say, Professor. You're the party leader, after all..." Yami reluctantly removed all of the monsters that could fly, but couldn't carry multiple people. The last to go was the Dark Magician Girl. That narrowed it down considerably. "Now what?"

"Now, we need a monster that is small enough to fit in the room above, along with whatever monster Kaiba and Ryou pick."

Yami rolled his eyes. "Then why don't we use the _smaller_ monsters?! They can fit in here and carry everyone!"

Layton frowned. "Again, I'm trying to..."

Yami held up a hand to cut him off. "Now, Professor, you're a brilliant man and imma let you finish but you barely know anything about Duel Monsters and I know what my monsters are capable of." As he talked, he rearranged the remaining cards so that they were in a grid in front of Layton. Then he took the monsters from the pile of those who could carry only one person and put them in another grid in front of him.

"How about this," Layton said. "We should narrow down the monsters based on other criteria first, then debate whether we use multiple monsters or one monster."

Yami nodded. "Fair enough. What's next?"

"Well, they should be big enough to carry at least one person."

Yami removed all of the flying monsters that were too small to carry anyone. Including Winged Kuriboh. _"Yugi, we need to get rid of this card. Next time you see a new Yu-Gi-Oh! main protagonist, give this card to him. We don't want it anymore."_

_"Agreed."_

He put those cards into another pile next to the non-flying monsters.

"Next, the monsters that can actually _carry _something."

Yami removed the cards that didn't have arms to pick someone up or couldn't carry people on its back. Then he rearranged the two groups of cards and neatened the grids to see how much smaller they had become.

Now there were a _lot_ fewer cards there. Both grids had gotten significantly smaller.

It was time to decide whether they would have one big monster or four smaller monsters.

And they knew who to ask.

They turned their heads around.

"Mokuba!"

Mokuba and Flora picked up their heads and looked over at them.

"Uh...yeah?"

"Would it be better to have one monster carry us all or four monsters carrying us separately?" Yami asked. "We can't decide."

"Seriously?" Mokuba said. "You need my help deciding what monsters we should use, and yet you didn't bother asking me for my help until now? Have you forgotten that I have cards as well? Flora and I had to duel our way out of the basement of this building."

"Oops," Yami said nonchalantly. "We didn't know. You didn't tell us anything."

"Yami is right," Layton said. "Neither of you told us anything about your time here. You probably should have."

"Well sorry, but we didn't exactly have time for that, with all that's been going on."

"Okay. _Sorry_. My bad," Yami said sarcastically. "It's not my fault you got kidnapped again."

"Yami!" Flora shouted defensively.

"Sorry, Flora," Yami said with a shrug. "But it's true. But we _will _get out of here. Mokuba, which should we use?"

Mokuba folded his arms and frowned at Yami. "Do you want to see my cards now and sort them out."

"No. Too much work. Not enough time. Just tell us already! One or four?"

"I still think that it should be one, for safety," Layton said.

"And I think it should be four, for convenience," Yami countered.

Mokuba thought about that. True, four would make it easier to get out because of maneuverability. But then again... He, Layton, and Bakura were all trying to keep Flora safe. And since Bakura wasn't in the chamber with her, it fell upon Mokuba to look after her for him. He _definitely_ didn't want to find out what Bakura would do to him if something happened to her.

And yes, he still had a crush on her. He was trying to let it die out because of what Emmy had told him. But it was a little difficult.

So what would it be? Four or one? Convenience or safety? The escape or the people escaping?

"Don't ask me," Mokuba said at last. "Ask Flora."

Everyone turned to Flora.

"Mokuba..." she mumbled, low enough to not be heard by Yami or Layton but Mokuba could hear because he was standing so close to her. "Why did you have to put me on the spot?"

"Just decide," Mokuba mumbled back.

"I can't. I don't know about what cards Yami has."

"Well Yami probably won't listen to me if I decide. He might listen to your choice."

"Oh..." Flora started speaking at normal volume. "Um... Can I see the cards you're trying to decide between? If I know them, I can decide."

Yami nodded. He picked up the five cards he and Layton were debating over and held them out. Mokuba walked over and took them, then passed them to her.

She and Mokuba both leaned against the wall, with their backs to the other chamber, as Flora examined the cards. "Hm..." She could tell which card was the lone monster and which four were supposed to be grouped. "Um...Ryou told me about three of these cards before, and Mokuba told me about another one while we were in the LBFs. The only one I don't know is one of the four monsters that are grouped. But..." She held the cards out to Mokuba, who passed them back.

Layton decided to lean against the wall as well, between Yami and Mokuba (Flora was on the other side of Mokuba).

"...but I know enough about the other monsters to decide. I think we should take the group of four. It's more effective and safer, because the monsters can defend each other and each of us. Plus, their combined strength is greater than the lone monster's. Win-win, right?" She looked to everyone else for confirmation.

Yami and Mokuba nodded. Yami gave Layton a triumphant smile. "See? I know what I'm talking about."

"Okay, Yami," Layton responded. "Whatever works. You sure you can handle all four of them at once?"

"Yes. And so can the three of you." Flora and Mokuba decided to sit against the wall. Layton remained standing.

"Alright then," Layton said. "So we should get ready to let the other group about leaving, correct?"

"Not just yet," Yami replied. "First, let me just organize my cards." Yami picked up the rest of his cards besides the four that would be carrying them and put the cards into a stack. He shuffled through the stack, took out eight cards, put those cards on the top of the stack, then loaded the stack into his Duel Disk. He activated the Duel Disk, along with his Millenium Puzzle. He did all of this while still sitting down.

"Okay," he said at last. "I think we're ready..."

Suddenly, he could just barely hear someone shouting "PHARAOH!" and "YUGI!". It has come from behind him. He looked up and turned around...

* * *

_~Meanwhile, in Emmy's chamber...~_

Emmy kept Luke occupied with conversation and puzzles while Yami Bakura and Kaiba talked so that he wouldn't interrupt them.

"Luke..." Emmy whispered while they were talking, "could you possibly tell me how Ryou and Flora met?"

"Well... Flora said that she would rather herself or Ryou tell the story, if anyone wanted to know. And besides, I don't even know everything there is to tell about it. But I guess I can tell you when. It was a few months ago, when the three of us had come to stay in Japan. About three months ago."

"I see..." Emmy murmured. She looked over at the other chamber, at Flora, then at Yami Bakura in their chamber. She looked at Luke with a curious and concerned look in her eyes. "Could you at least tell me what the problem between you and the other Bakura is? What happened between you two? Did he do something to you or Flora?"

Luke stared at Yami Bakura with a hateful frown on his face. "Hmph. Yes. Something _did_ happen. But Flora made me promise not to tell anyone. You're better off asking her yourself. But it's pretty obvious that he's no good. He isn't to be trusted, that's for sure. He's evil. And the way he used to treat Ryou..." Luke's frown deepened. "I just don't like him at all. Plus, he looks too much like a fluffy kitty. But don't ask me about what happened."

Emmy nodded understandingly.

Yami Bakura and Kaiba's voices suddenly raised in volume. Both Luke and Emmy looked over a the two of them. They had gone from talking quietly to speaking at normal volume.

"My monster can actually get us out of here," Kaiba said. "It's way more powerful than yours."

Like Yami and Layton had, they had narrowed the cards down. Unlike them, Yami Bakura and Kaiba had narrowed it down to two monsters, and they were now arguing about which one they should choose.

"Obviously you're so power-hungry that you don't care about anything else," Yami Bakura retorted. "Power isn't everything. How are we even supposed to get out of the chamber to get on it? Mine can actually get in here and carry us out."

"Yeah! One by one! And that's _way_ too slow! We're trying to escape here as soon as possible."

"Well, speed just might kill us. Speaking of things that could kill us, how safe is that thing to ride? Not very, in my opinion."

They started raising their voices a bit...

"No one cares about your opinion!" Kaiba shouted at Yami Bakura. "Can your monster actually get us _out_ of here?"

"It can! You don't know my monsters that well! You have no idea what they're capable of."

"I've seen enough of you _and_ your monsters in Battle City to know that I'm more capable of escaping than you are."

"You're insulting the escaping skills of the master of breaking into and escaping out of places? I take offense to that!"

"I don't care!"

"That's my line!"

"Did you coin or copyright it? I don't think so!"

"Oh it's all about money for you, isn't it?" Yami Bakura stood up. "Money and power! You just want to prove how rich and powerful you are! Well just make sure your big head and ego don't get caught in the door and prevent you from escaping."

"Oh, so you actually _care_ if I get out alive?" Kaiba said sarcastically as he also stood up. "Wow. Thanks _so _much!"

Emmy and Luke put the puzzle away and stood up as well, both of them feeling—and Luke _knowing_—that things were about to escalate by a lot.

"Stop being so sarcastic!" Yami Bakura shouted.

"Seriously, why do you care how we escape? You can just get out of here as that Change of Heart card."

"I can't. That Card is connected to Ryou's Heart, not mine."

"Oh don't you start with that Heart of the Cards bull crap! I don't want to hear any more about 'Heart of the Cards' or pharaohs or ancient spirits or Ancient Egypt or any of that nonsense!"

"Well guess what, Seto? You _have_ to hear it! Stop being so ignorant to the truth and open your eyes. You know that everything the Pharaoh and I tell you about ourselves and about Egypt and all of that is true! You just don't want to accept it. You're too damn ignorant. You're even ignorant about your own brother!"

"What did you say?" Kaiba growled.

Yami Bakura smirked. "Yes. You're even ignorant about Mokuba. You know him so much better than I do, and yet you didn't even notice that he has a crush on Flora."

"WHAT?!1?!1" everyone else in the chamber shouted. Luke and Kaiba's jaws dropped and their eyes widened. Emmy's eyes just widened. Obviously, she had already known. But she was shocked that the other Bakura had figured it out.

"Yes," Yami Bakura said smugly. "He does." Then he frowned. "Not that you noticed. And not that I'm surprised you didn't notice. It's not like you've ever been in love or seen what love looks like."

Kaiba growled at him. "Oh yeah?! Have you?!"

Yami Bakura blushed. "Maybe I have! How about that?!"

"Who would fall in love with you?" Luke questioned.

Yami Bakura's gaze shot to Luke. He stared at the 13 year-old coldly. "Don't you dare start with me, Triton," he growled.

"Luke," Emmy said. She put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him back a step.

_"I can't believe this!"_ a voice that only Yami Bakura could hear said. A moment later, Bakura appeared in his spirit form next to his yami. His yami looked at him "Mokuba likes Flora?! Since when?! Why?" His face was angry and his fists were clenched tightly. He looked over at the other chamber. "He'd better not try to hit on her or anything! He had better not! Flora is _my_ girlfriend, and I don't care if he's single or lonely or whatever! She's mine! If he makes a move on her, I _will_ destroy him!"

Yami Bakura grinned. "Wow, Host. I'm impressed. I didn't know you could make such threats with such a straight face."

Bakura glared at him. "Shut up! You make any moves on Flora—romantic or threatening—I'll destroy you, as well!"

Yami Bakura turned to Kaiba. "Well, since you obviously don't like Mokuba's little crush, does that mean you're giving me permission to utterly destroy his brother?"

Bakura's eyes widened. "N-no that's not what I meant, Bakura!"

"Too bad. Kaiba is obviously to damn stubborn and thick-headed to listen to reason, and I don't like him anyway so I might as well try to get through to him using force."

Bakura gasped. "No, Spirit, don't!"

Too late.

The Millenium Ring glowed. Yami Bakura picked up three of the cards from the floor. He held one of them up in the air with his left hand. The glow from the Ring moved to the card. Moments later, something started materializing outside of the chamber behind him.

Emmy, Luke, Bakura, and Kaiba watched as a serpent-looking monster with grey scales and a snake for a tail materialized. Kaiba knew what it was. Diabound.

"Oh. My. Money," Kaiba said, his eyes wide. He was staring at Diabound in shock. "You did _not_ just summon your Diabound."

"Again with the disbelief?" Yami Bakura asked after lowering his hand. Diabound remained where it was. "Tsk tsk. And yes, I did. What are you going to do about it?"

Kaiba looked at Yami Bakura and smirked. "Well two can play at this card game." He picked up all of his cards from the floor and put them into one stack. He loaded the stack into his Duel Disk and activated the Duel Disk. He took the card from the top of the deck and put it on one of the card spots.

"Come forth, Blue Eyes White Dragon!" he cried. A moment later, one of his Blue Eyes White Dragons appeared in the air above the chamber. It roared and flexed its limbs and wings.

Yami Bakura didn't look fazed at all. In fact, he looked amused. He put a hand on his chin. "Wow. Impressive. But that isn't really going to do a damn thing to help you." His face turned serious and he moved one of the two cards in his other hand to the hand that held Diabound's card. He held the remaining card in his right hand up in the air, like he had done with the Diabound card. The Millenium Ring glowed again, and the glow moved from the Ring to the card.

Just like Diabound had, another monster materialized outside of the chamber. This one was smaller than Diabound and looked more human than it, but was obviously still far from being human. Dark Necrofear.

Luke gasped, as if he knew the card, which he did. "No..." he breathed. He took a step backwards.

"Yami!" Bakura shouted. "Stop this!"

"Back off, Ryou," Yami Bakura said to him without looking away from Kaiba. "I know what I'm doing."

Kaiba just laughed. "Wow. You think that those two monsters together can still match my Blue Eyes? Ha! That's hilarious. But okay. I'll feed your silly delusion by crushing it. And since I have money _and_ I'm in a place with a lot of money, I can screw the rules and summon my last two Blue Eyes White Dragons as well as my Ultimate and Shining Blue Eyes White Dragons, all in one turn!" Kaiba drew four cards from the top of his deck and put them on each of the four free spots on his Duel Disk, summoning all of them at once. Two more Blue Eyes White Dragons appeared next to the first. Behind, slightly above, and slightly to the right of them, the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon appeared. Then, to its left, the Blue Eyes Shining Dragon appeared.

Now, Kaiba had five Blue Eyes Dragons under his control. And all Yami Bakura had were Diabound and Dark Necrofear.

But the spirit didn't look worried or upset or fazed at all in any sort of way. Instead, he laughed loudly for a good minute. "You think that summoning anything is going to help you?! Just try it and see what happens."

"Okay. Blue Eyes White Dragons! One of you attack Diabound and another one attack Dark Necrofear!"

Two of the Blue Eyes White Dragons reared their heads to attack. White balls of light appeared in their mouths. The two dragons shot the balls at each of Yami Bakura's monsters.

The balls of light aimed straight at Diabound and Dark Necrofear...but sailed straight through and didn't do a thing. They faded away before they hit anything.

Kaiba's jaw dropped. "What the...how did you do that?!"

"I told you so!" Yami Bakura spread his arms out wide. "Go ahead, Kaiba. Try to attack me. See where that gets you."

"Kaiba!" Emmy cried. "Don't you dare listen to him! Just back off!"

Kaiba grinned. "Ms. Altava, I assure you that I know what I'm doing."

"You'll only be hurting the good Bakura, not the evil one! And besides, you'll end up hurting the rest of us."

Yami Bakura grinned wide. "No he won't," he said to her.

Kaiba didn't listen to either of them. "Blue Eyes White Dragon! Attack him directly."

"NOOOOOO!" Everyone in the chamber shouted.

The Blue Eyes attacked, aiming for Yami Bakura. The ball of light sailed straight for him.

It touched him.

But then it sailed straight through him. It went straight through the walls and floor of the chamber!

Everyone stared at Yami Bakura in confusion, and Kaiba in disbelief. "Why didn't it work!?" he asked.

Yami Bakura let out an evil laugh. "Don't you get it, Seto? I can make monsters real with my Millenium Item, as you know. But I make them real as I want them. I can _choose_ which monsters are affected by my magic! And I decided not to choose any of yours! So my monsters are real, but yours aren't! I told you it was pointless."

Everyone looked at Kaiba. The rich-as-frig CEO had paled a bit. So had everyone else. If the evil Bakura was the only one with real monsters, then they were all in trouble.

Kaiba let the holograms fade away.

"Now let's see how _I_ fare with attacking you directly, shall we? Now which one of my monsters should I attack you with?"

"Yami!" Bakura tried to grab the cards out of his yami's hands, but it didn't work because he didn't have a physical form. "Stop it! You're making a mistake! Don't do this! Let it go! He's not worth it!"

"Don't try to stop me, Ryou!" the yami snarled at his hikari. "And admit it, you don't like Kaiba either."

"I don't, but don't go killing him! Or anyone else here, for that matter!"

"I don't care! I'm attacking."

Kaiba just stood there frozen with fear. He knew that there was nothing he could do. For once, he was helpless. This realization paralyzed him just as much as his fear did.

Bakura had to do something! His yami wouldn't hesitate to attack! Kaiba's monsters weren't real, so they were useless. But the Ring wasn't the only Millenium Item around...

Bakura sailed over to the other chamber in his spirit form. He stopped halfway, unable to go further because of the distance between him and his body. He had to shout.

He had wondered why no one had noticed the duel already, and he found out why. Everyone in Flora's chamber was looking the other way. Everyone was either sitting or standing with their back to the other chamber.

"PHARAOH! YUGI! CAN YOU HEAR ME! WE NEED HELP OVER HERE AND FAST!"

Yami looked up and turned around. He stood up abruptly. Bakura couldn't hear what was going on, but he saw Yami saying something to the others and pointing. Everyone stood up and turned around. They saw the mosnters above the other chamber. Flora covered her mouth with her hands. Mokuba's jaw dropped. Layton's face paled.

"PHARAROH! PLEASE HELP US!" With all his might, Bakura struggled to move a bit closer to the other chamber, and he succeeded. "MY YAMI HAS GONE CRAZY AND HE'S ABOUT TO ATTACK KAIBA WITH DARK NECROFEAR! THE BLAST WILL SURELY HURT ALL OF US, MAYBE EVEN ME! YOU NEED TO SEND A MONSTER OVER HERE TO HELP! MY YAMI ISN'T LETTING KAIBA'S MONSTERS BE REAL! DO SOMETHING!"

Yami's eyes widened briefly. Now that he was closer, Bakura could hear what they were saying. "What?! How did it escalate to this!?"

"It doesn't matter! Just do something!"

Yami looked like he was considering this.

"Yami, what happened?" Layton asked, since he was unable to see or hear Bakura.

"Bakura is like right over there and he says that his evil side is about to blast Kaiba with his monster. And frankly I don't care. I don't like Kaiba anyway. It'll serve him right for all the trouble he's put us through in the past. Not you, I mean. Yugi and I."

"WHAT?!" Mokuba cried. "Are you crazy?! What the hell! Save him! He's my brother."

"Ha! And you think I care, Mokuba?"

"You'd better!" Mokuba ran over to Yami and shoved him into the adjacent wall. "Save him! Please!"

Layton grabbed hold of Mokuba and pulled him away from Yami. "Mokuba! Please calm down."

"Yami!" Flora shouted. "Just do it! If Ryou and Mokuba want you to save him, then do it!"

"I agree!" Layton added. "And the blast might also hurt Emmy and Luke!"

"I'm sure it wo—" Yami glanced at the other chamber. What he saw made his eyes go so wide his pupils almost replaced his irises...

* * *

_~Because meanwhile...~_

Just after Yami Bakura said "I'm attacking", Emmy's mind started racing and searching for a solution. At first, she thought of tackling Yami Bakura, but she didn't know what that Ring was capable of and he could seriously hurt her, and then he might go after Luke! She looked at the other chamber. No one had noticed the monsters because all of them were facing the other way. "YAMI! HELP US OUT! PLEASE!" But Yami didn't seem to hear her.

Then suddenly, Yami picked his head up, turned around, and looked at something in the air between the chambers that she couldn't see. Then he pointed at the monsters. The next moment, everyone in the other chamber stood up and turned around. They, too, noticed the monsters.

Emmy waved her arms in the hopes of getting Yami's attention. He didn't notice her. He was talking to Mokuba and the others in the chamber.

"Emmy!" Luke shouted. "I think Ryou is over there in his spirit form talking to them! He's done that sort of thing before, Flora has told me. He must be getting Yami to help!"

"Then why isn't he getting one of his monsters out by now!" she cried. The blast might not only hurt Kaiba, but the rest of them as well, maybe even Ryou's body. She certainly couldn't let that happen.

Then she realized why Yami wasn't acting as he should. "Well no wonder! He doesn't like Kaiba at all!"

"Then how do we get him to help!?"

Emmy looked between Yami, Kaiba, and Yami Bakura.

Yami Bakura shouted, "Dark Necrofear, get ready to attack!"

Emmy had no time to waste! She had suddenly realized what would get Yami to act.

Her.

Without hesitation, she jumped in front of Kaiba and spread out her arms. This snapped Kaiba out of his daze and he flinched. He backed against the wall.

"Dark Bakura!" Emmy shouted. "Stop this right now! Why are you doing this?! Just because of some silly argument?! Ridiculous!"

Yami Bakura smiled at her. "I don't really hate you, but I don't like you either. I'll give you the chance to move and spare yourself. Then I'm attacking whether you've moved or not."

Luke suddenly joined her. "You'll have to get through me, too!"

Yami Bakura gave him an evil grin. "Well in that case, I'll make sure Dark Necrofear puts even _more_ power into his attack, just so that you can burn that much more. I don't like you."

Emmy pushed him away. "Luke! Move!"

Luke fell back and landed on his bottom. When he had recovered, he scrambled backwards into the corner.

"I'm not moving!" she shouted at Yami Bakura.

His evil smile grew wider and eviler. "Your funeral. Dark Necrofear! Attack Kaiba directly! And Emmy along with him!"

Dark Necrofear raised its arms to prepare its attack...

* * *

_~Back to Yami's chamber~_

Yami's heart and mind raced. If Bakura attacked, he would be hurting Kaiba _and_ Emmy. And he wouldn't let that happen to her!

"Oh no you don't, you evil thieving Limey Fruitcake!" he shouted. He immediately snatched a card from the floor, activated his Duel Disk and Millenium Puzzle, and put the card on the Duel Disk. The monster he had chosen was summoned, and materialized completely real and tangible. It was his signature monster: the Dark Magician.

"Dark Magician!" he cried in a demanding, commanding, and powerful voice, "get over there fast and block that attack! And hurry!"

Without hesitation, the Dark Magician flew over to the other chamber. Everyone, including Bakura, turned to watch.

Dark Necrofear had finished preparing its attack. The monster aimed.

Dark Magician reached the chamber.

Dark Necrofear unleashed its attack, and it shot towards Emmy and Kaiba. Both of them cringed and closed their eyes tight.

Dark Magician flew inside the chamber. He landed in front of Emmy and Kaiba.

* * *

_~Emmy's chamber~_

The attack hit the Dark Magician instead of them. It exploded, causing an aftershock that blew everyone else in the chamber except Yami Bakura backwards into the walls of the chamber. Everyone screamed.

The Dark Magician cried out in pain. Kaiba and Emmy opened their eyes and watched. Moments later, an instant after the aftershock faded, the Dark Magician shattered and disappeared. It had been defeated by Dark Necrofear!

"Whoa!" Kaiba exclaimed. "Was the Dark Magician just defeated by Dark Necrofear?! How is that possible! Dark Necrofear has 2200 ATK and Dark Magician has 2500 ATK! And both were in attack mode."

Yami Bakura snarled and glared at Yami in the other chamber. "Luckily for me, I activated the third card I had picked up just before I had attacked you. Shield and Sword. Which, as you know, is a magic card that switches the attack and defense points of every monster on the field at the time of activating it. Dark Necrofear has 2800 DEF. He overpowered Dark Magician. Good thing I had already planned to activate that card. I had no idea that the Pharaoh would RUIN EVERYTHING FOR ME YET AGAIN!"

Everyone looked over at the other chamber, at Yami. He was on the ground, clutching his chest in pain.

"What's wrong with him?" Emmy asked worriedly.

Yami Bakura smirked. "His Heart is connected to the Dark Magician. When it was real thanks to the power of his Millenium Item, destroying it hurt him along with his life points."

Emmy turned a hateful glare on the evil spirit. "So you just hurt his life points _and_ his life force?! What is wrong with you?!" She stepped away from Kaiba, stood with her legs slightly apart, clenched a fist, and held it up in Yami Bakura's direction. Luke recognized this stance as her fighting stance. She was about to...

She jumped at Yami Bakura, her fist aimed at his face. He smirked with amusement in his eyes. When her fist was an inch from his face, he sidestepped her. Her fist hit the glass wall instead.

She showed no sign that this hurt, and simply turned around and aimed a kick at her.

"Hey! Stop that!" Kaiba shouted. "There's no room for that!"

Good thing he and Luke were already backed into the corners. Because they didn't care.

Bakura let go of the three cards he was holding, and they floated to outside of the chamber and remained suspended in midair.

The two of them started fighting, throwing kicks and punches and blocking each other. It looked like they were pretty evenly matched in terms of skill and agility and speed. But that didn't mean that someone wasn't going to get hurt. Luke and Kaiba remained in the corners so they wouldn't be hit by the moving fighters.

Like Kaiba had said, there _wasn't_ that much room in the chamber. But again, they didn't care. They just kept fighting.

Neither Luke nor Kaiba wanted to or had the skill to stop them or break up the fight.

But someone _else_ did.

Luke saw something flying from the other chamber over to theirs. "Look up there!" he cried, pointing to a blue streak flying though the air between the two chambers.

The streak halted when it flew directly above their chamber. Something fell from it. Or rather, someone.

He landed right behind Emmy and grabbed her by hooking his arms under hers and holding his hands behind her head. He pulled her back a few steps. She was still flailing around trying to get a hit on Yami Bakura, who had been in the middle of throwing a punch when Emmy had been grabbed.

Everyone—except for Emmy—looked to see who had grabbed her.

It was Yami.

His Duel Disk was activated and had one card on it. The blue thing above the chamber was the monster Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress, which Yami had summoned to carry him over to their chamber.

"What are you doing over here, Muto?" Kaiba asked.

"Gr... Pharaoh," Yami Bakura snarled.

"Yes!" Luke cried.

"Let go!" Emmy shouted.

"Emmy, please calm down!" Yami said to her. "His evil face isn't worthy enough to be turned inside out by your fist. Give it up!"

Emmy immediately stopped struggling and she relaxed. She and Yami Bakura were both still breathing heavily, however.

"Wait a minute!" Kaiba exclaimed. "Why are you the same height as Emmy?!"

Everyone took another look and saw that Yami had become taller than he should be.

"Fanfiction convenience," Yami answered simply. He let go of Emmy's arms and turned her around. He put his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. "Emmy! Are you okay!?"

She closed her eyes and nodded. "Yes. I'm fine. Took you a while to respond, though. Almost let us all get killed."

He let go of her shoulders. "I'm sorry. But you know I don't care about Kaiba."

"True. But still! What about Luke and I!"

"Well I'm sorry!"

"Apology not excepted," she said, but with a smile.

She turned around and froze in place when her eyes locked on Yami Bakura. "Now I see why no one likes him."

Yami wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back. "Oh no you don't!"

Emmy twisted her arms backwards and wrapped them around his waist in a backwards hug. "Don't worry. I won't. Yet."

Kaiba gave Yami an angry look. "Let me get this straight! You had Dark Magician come over here only when _she_ jumped in front of me, but not when I was about to be destroyed?! I'm the reason you were allowed to join us! I'm the party leader for Yu-Gi-Oh! What sense does that make!?"

Yami shrugged. "I like her more than I like you...so..." He started ignoring Kaiba and looked at Yami Bakura. "Why must you always cause trouble with everyone I care about! And also everyone I don't care about but that isn't the point!"

"Didn't know you cared about her so much. I would have made an extra effort to get a good hit in."

"Shut up!"

"Hold on!" Luke cried. "I just realized something! Emmy...Yami...are you two...?"

Emmy twisted her head around and she and Yami exchanged looks. Then Emmy moved from in front of Yami to next to him. They each put an arm around the other's waist. "I guess there's no point in hiding it now, is there?" Emmy asked Yami.

"I guess not," he replied. They looked at everyone. "Okay. Ready for a plot twist? This bitch right here is totally in love with me.

Emmy stomped on Yami's food hard.

The only sign Yami let show that it hurt was a pained grimace. "Ow. Sorry! I mean...this absolutely beautiful lady right here and I are totally in love."

"WHAT?!" everyone shouted in disbelief. "WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?!"

"About two weeks before we received the letters," Emmy replied. "The letters telling us about Flora and Mokuba having been kidnapped. Yami and I both received one like the rest of you did. We didn't see any reason to go with you, but we convinced each other to come."

"So _that's _why you two came with us!" Luke said. "Neither of you have any personal connection to Ryou or Flora or Mokuba or Kaiba, so you only went if the other was going, right?"

"Right," Emmy affirmed. "And good thing we did. We were needed."

Yami waved a hand dismissively. "It doesn't matter when or how we got together. What matters is right now. And right now..." He removed his hand from Emmy's side and stepped away from her. He took a step towards Yami Bakura.

"I should totally destroy you right now," he said to the evil spirit of the Millenium Ring, his voice and face irritated and angry. "But I still need you and so do Flora and the real Bakura. So I won't. However, I have no problem with destroying your monsters just like you destroyed my Dark Magician!" He drew four cards.

Yami Bakura took a step back and growled. The cards he had suspended outside of the chamber floated to in front of him and rested flat in the air in front of him as if on an invisible table. He glared at Yami and said, "Try me, Pharaoh." The Shield and Sword card moved back to the floor with the other cards.

"Oh I will, you Limey Fruitcake! I know that you only could have destroyed Dark Magician by activating Shield and Sword, making Dark Necrofear's attack power higher than Dark Magician's. But your 'turn' has technically ended, so the effect of that card has ended! And I have the perfect monster to destroy it with!" He raised his arm skyward, at Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress. "I sacrifice my monster here..." The dragon disappeared. "...to summon Dark Magician Girl!" He placed the card on his Duel Disk, and Dark Magician Girl appeared seconds later. This same monster had been the last monster Yami had used before he and the others had found Mokuba and Flora. "And she gets a 300 ATK point bonus for every Dark Magician in my graveyard, so her attack power goes from 2000 to 2300, which is more than Dark Necrofear's original ATK of 2200, which is all it has now. Now Dark Magician Girl, attack Dark Necrofear!"

Dark Magician Girl raised her staff and aimed it at Dark Necrofear.

Yami Bakura's eyes widened and he growled at Yami again.

She let forth her attack. It shot toward Dark Necrofear. It was pushed back for a moment once the attack hit it, then it shattered and disappeared. Its card also floated back over to the others.

Yami Bakura suddenly hunched over and grasped his chest in pain. He let out a pained gasp as he sank to his knees. He started breathing hard. He looked up at glared hatefully at Yami.

"All that's left is your Diabound," Yami continued. "And since this isn't an official duel, and we rarely follow the rules anyway, I'm going to break the rules a bit and attack again! And since Diabound only has 1800 ATK, Dark Magician Girl certainly has enough power to destroy it!"

"No wait stop!" a voice cried from just outside the chamber.

Only Yami Bakura and Yami Yugi turned to the direction the voice had come from. It was Bakura. He floated inside the chamber and hovered in front of Yami. "Don't attack Diabound!" he pleaded. "Please!"

Yami folded his arms. "And why not? He certainly deserves it."

"Because! Doing that would hurt him even more! And we need his help to escape as well! Plus, I'm pretty sure Diabound can help us as well! Please! I—I mean _we_—need them both!" His face turned adorable and pleading. He moved so he was standing in front of his dark. He spread his arms out in a protective stance, protecting his yami. "Please, Pharaoh?"

Yugi decided to show up. "As much as all of us hate Bakura," he said to Yami, "you should just spare him now so we can escape. Then you can duel the limey crap out of him."

Yami grinned Season-Zero-Evilly at the sound of that. "Well alright then. As long as I get to destroy him _after _we escape."

"Sod off!" Bakura cried, lowering his arms.

Yami rolled his eyes. "Fine. Whatever."

Everyone stared at the two yamis in total confusion. Obviously, none of them had heard the conversation between the hikaris and Yami Yugi.

Yami noticed their stares. "Don't worry about it. Yugi and Bakura are convincing me not to bother the evil Bakura until we finish escaping. So fine."

Bakura turned around. His yami looked up at him with an odd mix of confusion, gratefulness, and relief on his face. "Ryou...you actually...?"

"Don't think this means anything, yami," he said. "I'm only saving you because you're in control of my body right now and we _do_ need you and Diabound to get out of here. I don't care what he does to you afterwards. As long as you're not in control of my body."

Yami Bakura smirked and nodded. _That's_ the way he expected his host to feel towards him.

He recovered enough to stand up. He looked at the other chamber, where Layton, Mokuba, and Flora watched them in shock and suspense and fear. He smirked at Flora, but knew she didn't and wouldn't notice.

Kaiba and Luke moved away from the corners.

"So now that that...weirdness is over," Kaiba said, "How are we going to get out of here?"

"Diabound," Yami Bakura said, trying his best not to piss Yami off. "He can carry us all up."

"We went over this!" Kaiba shouted. "Diabound can't get past the panels."

"But he's easy to fly and maneuver. Plus, he could fit all of us simply on his tail. And his tail can get into the chambers and let all of us on. It's perfect. I _tried_ to tell you this but you're so bloody stubborn and thick-headed!"

"Seto. Bakura. Yami," Emmy said. All three males looked to her. "There has been enough arguing! Let's just go with Diabound and be done with it. It's already out and real, so we might as well. Alright?"

The three of them looked like they weren't going to listen to her.

"ALRIGHT?!" she shouted in a powerful and demanding voice.

The three of them jumped, then nodded obediently. She smiled. _Works every time_, she thought triumphantly.

Yami Bakura gathered his and Bakura's cards from the floor and put them into a neat stack, which he pocketed all of except for Diabound's card.

Kaiba held a corner of his collar close to his face. "Talking Collar," he said into it, "let Layton and Flora know that we're almost ready to get out of here."

A voice came out of the collar and replied. {"WHOA, SETO! Why do I still have this connection to you?!"}

"Is that Mokuba?" Emmy asked.

"No," Kaiba replied. "It's my talking collar."

{"Seto,"} the voice said, audible to everyone else in the chamber including Kaiba. {"it's me, Mokuba. I'm not a talking collar."}

"Shut up, Mokuba," Yami, Yugi, Ryou, Bakura, and Kaiba all replied.

Emmy and Luke's jaws dropped. "YOU HAD COMMUNICATION WITH HIM THIS WHOLE TIME!?" they exclaimed.

"Seto! Did you?" Emmy asked.

Kaiba scoffed. "Of course not. If I did, I would have contacted him the moment he was kidnapped. The other connection is in the collar of Mokuba's vest. It was switched off. Just before we fell down here, I switched it on."

"OOOOOOOHHHHHHHH" everyone else said.

"Anyway, it's on speaker. So... MOKUBA I FORGOT TO YELL AT YOU FOR NOT REMEMBERING TO TURN IT ON!"

{"Sorry, Seto."} Mokuba said sadly. {"I didn't even realize I was wearing the vest that contained it."}

"Shut up, Mokuba. Just let them know."

{"Mine is on speaker as well. They heard you."}

{"Hi!"} Flora's voice said. {"Are Ryou and Luke okay?"}

"We're fine!" Luke and Bakura said, but only Luke was heard. Bakura looked over at Flora's chamber and saw her and Layton near Mokuba, leaning over him so they could hear what was being said.

{"Good!"}

"We'll be picking up everyone on Diabound," Kaiba said. "We're taking one monster. Get ready to go."

{"We will."} Layton's voice said. {"Seto, why didn't you tell anyone about this earlier?"}

"First I didn't need to because I was in the same chamber as Mokuba. Then, I didn't because I was more focused on getting out of here."

{"Oh. Well you could have at least told us on the way here."}

"Well _excuse_ me for having other priorities! Anyway, just get ready. I'm shutting mine off temporarily. If Mokuba tries to contact me, it won't be on speaker. K bye." Kaiba let go of his collar.

Layton and Flora moved away from Mokuba.

* * *

**YESH! PLOT TWIST! ANOTHER CROSSOVER RELATIONSHIP! Ha! I had thought of this when writing both switch versions.  
AND OTHER PLOT TWIST! THE TALKING COLLAR.**

**Sorry if the ending was a bit abrupt. I didn't know how else to end it. Next chapter will pick up exactly where this one leaves off.  
****Next chapter, they all actually try to get out of the chambers!  
I actually have an idea of what I'll be doing for that chapter, so it should be done on time, this time!**

**Remember the blue button?**

**Next chapter:  
Up And Out**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	22. Up And Out

**HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!**

**This chapter was all written on-site, and not on my iPod. Just a little fun fact there.**

**So you know how last chapter was heavily YGO-centered, meaning there were a lot of YGO elements in it, such as the duel and Millenium Items? Well, to make up for that, I'm making this chapter more centered around Professor Layton. Unfortunately, there will still have to be YGO in this chapter, because of how they are escaping. I feel like there hasn't been enough PL compared to YGO or YGOTAS, so this is well-needed.**

**There is/are an odd POV(s) in this chapter. See if you can figure it/them out.  
Yami Yugi is "the Pharaoh", Yami Bakura is "Bakura", and Ryou is "Ryou".**

**Here we go!**

_I do not own the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game or show, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, Duel Monsters, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 22: Up And Out•

Flora glared at Mokuba a bit angrily. "Mokuba! Why didn't you tell anyone you had a connection to your brother!"

Mokuba took a step back and held his hands up defensively. "Hey! I didn't know! I usually have a headpiece connected to the talking collar. Another connection is in one of my yellow vests, and I didn't know I was wearing that particular vest!"

"Wouldn't you have known what vest you were putting on?"

"No!" Mokuba shouted. "I wasn't wearing a vest when I was kidnapped! I was sleeping! In my pajamas! It was like midnight or something! Were _you_ in that dress when you were kidnapped?"

Flora suddenly backed off and looked a bit guilty. "N-no. I wasn't. I was sleeping as well. I was in a nightgown."

Mokuba's face softened and he backed off as well. "Oh..."

"Sorry. I just...I understand that neither of you remembered or could use it right away. Sorry. I guess I'm a little... Worked up about..."

She looked at the other chamber.

"About?" Layton asked.

She looked to him. "Ryou," she answered with a sigh. "His dark side is giving us trouble again. You saw how Yami was in pain when Dark Magician was destroyed..." Her face grew sad.

Mokuba walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Flora." She looked up. "It's going to be fine. Trust me. Everyone will soon be together and we'll keep each other in line. Okay?"

Flora nodded. "Okay."

"By the way..." Layton said. "Mokuba, why does everyone keep telling you to shut up."

"It's and abridged reference. It's pretty much one of the only things we have to remind people of that."

"Ah. Anyway, are you two ready? There doesn't seem to be anything needing to be done."

"We're ready," the two replied.

"Good..." Layton looked to the other chamber. "Now...we just wait."

* * *

_~Back in Emmy's chamber...~_

Yugi had been watching the entire time through Yami's eyes, but finally decided to appear in spirit form so he could experience stuff for himself. He waved at Ryou. Ryou waved back.

"Everyone over here is ready," Emmy said, "right?"

Everyone looked around the chamber and themselves to make sure they were ready.

Diabound was still out (obviously).  
Kaiba's Duel Disk was turned off.  
The Pharaoh's was still on.  
Dark Magician Girl was still out, in defense mode.  
Luke had his puzzle recorder turned off.

"Ready," everyone except for Emmy, Bakura, Ryou, and Yugi said.

"Just one thing," Bakura said. "It's getting tiring to have my cards in such an inconvenient place. I need a Duel Disk or something."

"Well you're certainly not getting mine," Kaiba said.

Bakura gave him an irritated look. "I didn't ask you. But I definitely could use it since you aren't going to be using any of your cards anytime soon until we get out of here."

Kaiba took a step back and put his Duel Disk arm behind his back. "No freaking way."

Bakura smirked. "I don't need your bloody Duel Disk," he said. The Millenium Ring flashed once. Then, the cards in his pocket floated out of it, but stayed in a neat stack. The Diabound card remained in front of him. Two of the cards in the stack—Dark Necrofear and Shield and Sword—returned to his pocket. "I'll be using an 'or something'," he said at last. "So calm that stick up your ass and shut up."

Kaiba glared at him, but felt like he was too rich to think of a retort.

"Anyway, Diabound?"

The grey monster floating outside the chamber moved closer to it. "Back up, everyone," Bakura instructed. Everyone backed into the walls. The snake thing that served as Diabound's tail snaked inside and rested its snake end flat on the floor of the chamber right next to Bakura. The rest of the tail leading to Diabound rested on the floor behind it. Its tail was wide enough to carry two people sitting side-by-side with room for one person lying down flat, and the section on the floor was long enough to carry five people sitting front to back. "There. Simply sit down side by side and ride the tail. Simple. Don't worry about sitting in the center or holding on or anything. You won't fall off. I won't let you. Then we'll fly over to the other chamber, pick everyone else up, then head up and try to blast our way out of here. Everyone clear?"

Everyone nodded.

"Good. I'll stand on the snake head. Mokuba and Flora will sit in front. Emmy and Layton in the back. Luke between Flora and Emmy. Kaiba behind Mokuba. Kaiba somewhere in front of Emmy and Layton. I don't care where the Pharaoh sits. I'll make sure Diabound keeps his tail as flat as possible while flying. Now get on."

Everyone moved to mount Diabound's tail (or the body of the snake, as Luke and Emmy chose to think of it).

Kaiba sat first. The Pharaoh sat to the right of Emmy and behind Kaiba. Luke sat in front of Emmy and next to Kaiba. Emmy and the Pharaoh left room behind them for Layton. Luke and Kaiba left room in front of them for Flora and Mokuba there was enough room between both rows for one or two people sitting side-by-side. The hikaris decided to sit there so they could each keep an eye on their respective yamis. Yugi sat in front of Emmy and Ryou sat in front of the Pharaoh.

So front to back and left to right, it was Bakura, a space for Flora and Mokuba, Luke and Kaiba, Yugi and Ryou, Emmy and the Pharaoh, and a space for Layton.

Bakura prepared to step on top of the snake head. It opened its mouth and flicked its tongue at him. He let it wrap around his hand. He smiled.

The tongue then retreated. Bakura stepped on top of the snake head. It was large enough for five people to stand on, but only one or two people to sit on.

"Everyone settled?"

"Yes," everyone said.

"Good. Now let's go." To Diabound, in a commanding voice, he said, "Diabound, keep this portion of your tail as straight and flat as possible. Now let's go. Up."

Everyone felt the muscles in Diabound's tail flex. Then the serpent monster rose into the air and began rising up and out of the chamber. He kept his tail flat and level, like Bakura told him to. However, the part of the tail attached to the snake head tilted up a bit as the snake head held itself a little bit higher than the part that everyone else was sitting on. This part was the space that Luke and Kaiba had cleared for Flora and Mokuba.

Bakura noticed this. "Hm. When we land, Ryou and Yugi you need to get up and Luke and Kaiba need to move back so Flora and Mokuba have room."

The four mentioned people nodded.

"Good. Now let's go." He turned around and faced forward.

As he had been talking, Diabound had continued rising. By the time Bakura had turned around, the tail had finally cleared the chamber.

Dark Magician Girl, still technically defense mode but not in a defense position so she could be free to move, flew alongside the tail next to Yugi.

Diabound turned to face the other chamber, then made his way over.

Bakura met the gaze of everyone in the other chamber, holding Mokuba's for the shortest amount of time and Flora's for the longest amount of time. She frowned at him. So did Layton. But Mokuba frowned the hardest.

Diabound finally flew above the chamber and positioned himself.

"Move out of the way," Bakura instructed, looking down on them.

Layton moved to one side of the chamber and Flora and Mokuba moved to the other side.

Just like he had for the previous chamber, Diabound lowered his tail into the chamber and let it rest on the floor of it. Mokuba ended up on the right side of the tail, Layton and Flora on the left.

Bakura turned around once Diabound's tail touched the floor.

"Get on," Bakura instructed Layton, Mokuba, and Flora. "It'll be fine. I'm using my Shadow Magic to make sure no one falls off."

As he talked, Yugi and Ryou moved just before Luke and Kaiba moved back. The hikaris switched sides, and Yugi floated next to his yami while Ryou decided to 'stand' on the snake head next to his yami. Dark Magician Girl stayed next to Yugi.

"And Flora, you know that Ryou is watching and he won't let me let anything happen to you."

Ryou looked at Flora, wishing she could see him.

"Why can't he do this instead?" she asked.

Ryou could tell that Bakura was the urge to roll his eyes. "Diabound isn't connected to his Heart, so he won't be able to control it with the Millenium Ring. Similarly, I can't be the Change of Heart like he can. But enough about that. You are supposed to sit in the front, next to Mokuba and in front of Luke."

Flora nodded. She moved close to the snake.

Bakura bend down and held out a hand to help her up.

She eyed the hand uncertainly and hesitated. Then she remembered that Ryou was keeping his dark side in check, shoved her fears into the back of her mind, and took the hand. She put her other hand on Diabound's tail and pulled herself up while Yami Bakura helped her. When she had risen enough to pull herself into a kneeling position, Yami Bakura let go.

She crawled over to the other side and sat down sideways with her legs out in front of her, her feet hanging off.

After Flora was on and out of the way, Kaiba helped Mokuba up and made sure he sat directly in front of him and not too close to where the tail would tilt upward.

"Layton, you go in the back," Bakura said.

Layton nodded and walked over to where Emmy was and got on behind her and the Pharaoh. He sat in the center, where he could see between them and have a clear view of Luke and Flora.

"Everyone ready?" Bakura asked.

"Ready," everyone replied in unison.

"Then Diabound, let's go. Straight up. To the ceiling."

Diabound rose again. Bakura turned around again. So did Ryou.

Diabound flew straight up.

Diabound raised one of his hands after about a minute. Another minute later, the hand hit something and the arm attached to it bent slightly. Diabound stopped rising. They had reached the ceiling of the chamber, it seemed. It had been quicker than they had thought, but that must have been due to Diabound's speed and size.

"We're at the top," Bakura announced. "This should be he exact spot that we fell from. I assume it is because we all fell straight down."

"How is it that we all fell from the same spot," Luke asked, "but fell into two separate chambers that are so far away?"

No one could think of an answer to that question. Bakura didn't bother. And even if Yugi or Ryou had, Luke wouldn't have heard them.

"Now all you have to do is blast it and we should be able to get back in the room," Kaiba said. "I hope Diabound has enough power to do that. My Blue Eyes certainly—"

"Don't you _dare_ start that again," Emmy said sharply.

"I agree," Bakura said. "Besides, Blue Eyes is _too_ powerful. We don't want to level the building. We just want to break through."

"Hmph," Kaiba said.

"So go ahead and do it already," the Pharaoh said.

"I will. Diabound, touch the ceiling first to make sure it's the right spot."

Diabound reached up with one of his hands and put his palm flat on the ceiling above him. He held it there for a few seconds, then lowered his hand.

"Hold on!" Bakura suddenly shouted. He stared at the space above them, his eyes wide. "This is where we fell from, right?"

"That's correct," Layton affirmed.

"Now here's the thing...I sense magic at work here."

"What?" Layton said in confusion.

"Magic," Bakura repeated.

"Wait a moment..." the Pharaoh said. "I sense it as well. I sense the use of teleportation magic here!"

"Teleportation?" Mokuba repeated.

"Yes," Bakura replied. "Teleportation. That's what it is."

"Teleportation..." Layton echoed. "Hm...something tells me that the blue button is involved here."

Everyone looked to him. "Another intuition, Professor?" Luke asked.

Layton smiled faintly. "Yes...you could say that." He put a hand on his chin in thought. "Think back on what we know. There were three buttons on the little remote that Ninja Guy held just before we fell. What did each of them do?"

"Well that's pretty easy," Luke said. "The green button made the floor slide away. The red panel made the glass panels fall away. But...what did the blue button do?"

"We figured this out earlier, in my chamber," Layton informed Luke. "Earlier, we used Yugi's Millenium Puzzle to figure it out."

"Ah, yes," Emmy said. "Seto and I noticed this because we saw it happening from over in our chamber, and also realized the same thing. However, we had no idea that this was connected to the blue button. And Luke and Mokuba were sleeping when this happened, so they didn't see it at all."

"The Pharaoh wasn't really with us during that experiment," Bakura said, looking at Layton. "He was in the Puzzle, and not with Yugi."

"Yes," Layton said. "That's correct. We figured out that the blue button turned on the force used to drop us here and make it look and feel like we were falling father than we really were. It felt like we were falling far under the building, when we really weren't."

"Okay," the Pharaoh said. "But then where _are_ we? We can't be that far below the building if the distance was just an illusion, right?"

"Right," Bakura replied. "But then we would have to be _in_ the building, but there's no room for that. Flora and Mokuba were in the LBFs, and I noticed on a sign we passed that said that LBF stands for 'Lower Basement Floors'."

"If they were in the basement," Emmy said, "then that means there isn't any space between the fifth and basement floors to put this giant room we're in, right?"

"That's right!" Flora exclaimed. "And even if the falling _was_ an illusion, triggered by the blue button, wouldn't he have to press the button to turn this effect on and off?"

"He might," Layton said. "But then he would have to have timed our experiment perfectly in order to keep the illusion up."

"First of all," Emmy said, "I don't think he would do that because I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want us figuring that out. Secondly, that would mean that he has been watching us this whole time, and surely he would have tried to stop us by now if he noticed us making progress. Thirdly, he would have hidden the blue button, again to keep us from figuring it out."

"Something doesn't seem to add up about that," Bakura suddenly said. "Being as evil as he is, he would _want_ us to know because I know, from obvious experience, that evil people like to show off their evil genius and watch their victims attempt—but fail—to escape. He wouldn't hide that from us. Meaning that either everything you said about him is wrong and he _did_ want us to figure it out, for the entertainment of it, _or_ everything you said is right, but he can't hide it because that isn't what the blue button does."

"That's a very solid explanation there, Bakura," Layton praised. Bakura's eyes widened briefly and he flinched. Flora gave Bakura a mixed look of indifference and disapproval. Ryou noticed both, and realized that both of them were surprised that the Professor had actually given his evil counterpart a compliment. And so was he. But he smiled. "And I think that your latter explanation might be the answer. Perhaps the falling effect is automatic. So then the question stands: what does the blue button do?"

"What else _can_ it possibly do, Professor?" Emmy asked.

"Yamis, both of you," Layton said. Both yamis looked at him. "You said that you can sense teleportation magic of some sort here, correct?"

"Right," both yamis answered in unison.

"Maybe that's the solution," Layton said. "I don't remember seeing the panels closing after we fell. And I had turned on my back at one point. All I saw was the light from the room above us disappearing. But in no way did it look like two panels sliding together to close. It looked more like the panels simply disappeared. Or rather, the room itself."

"What are you getting at, Professor?" Luke asked. "And why didn't you mention that to anyone earlier?"

"I wasn't so sure just yet. I believed, at first, that there was a logical and technical explanation for it. But now that I know that not only does Ninja Guy know about magic, but that two of the people with us can use and sense it, I firmly believe that this, too, _is_ magic. The teleportation magic that Yami Yugi and Yami Bakura are sensing."

The yamis looked up at the ceiling again. Bakura had Diabound reach a hand up and touch it again. "I don't sense a teleporter here, but I sense the magic of it. The teleporter isn't open."

"Hold on a minute!" Mokuba shouted. "Exactly what does all of this mean?"

"I think," Flora said with a thoughtful but unsure look on her face, "it means that we are actually several floors below the LBFs, but only fell about one floor in distance." Then suddenly, she gasped, her eyes lit up, and she smiled. "We teleported here through the floor of our fifth floor room! And the blue button turned on that teleporter!"

"THAT'S THE ANSWER!" Luke, Layton, Flora, and Emmy all cried in unison, pointing at each other.

Ryou and Mokuba cracked a smile at how adorable that right there was, Ryou more so because of Flora. Bakura did the same, but it was an amused smile.

The four of them lowered their hands.

"So," the Pharaoh said, "now that we've figured this out, what should we do about it?"

"Well, the teleporter isn't open and we don't have the button," Ryou said. "So...we'll have to teleport ourselves instead, using the teleportation magic here as an anchor for both sides." He looked to his yami. "Oh, pass the message on for me, please?"

Before anyone said anything else, Bakura relayed what his hikari had said so everyone else could hear it.

"Then we'll need to use a Duel Monsters card that has a teleportation effect," Yugi said.

Just as Bakura had done, the Pharaoh relayed his hikari's message to everyone else who couldn't hear.

"I have an idea for what we could do," the Pharaoh said. "I can use the Mystic Box magic card, which switches the places of one of my monsters and one of my opponent's monsters, then destroys the opponent's monster." He took out the card and held it up for everyone to see. "When it actually happens, what it looks like is one of my monsters goes in the box, the other box appears around one of the opponent's monsters, both boxes close, then swords go through the box on my side. When the boxes open again, the two monsters have switched places and MY monster is unharmed while _their_ monster is impaled by swords. So what we'll do is put one box on this side and the other box in the room, where the destination of the teleporter is. I'll need a bit of help from the evil Bakura, though..." He gave Bakura a slightly disapproving look. Bakura returned the look. "...in order to make sure the other box goes in the right location."

"Right," Bakura said in agreement.

"We'll just go in the box one-by-one, the swords will go in the box, and we'll safely teleport to the other box. Here's the thing, there will have to be two people on each side of the boxes so it can be kept real _and_ so we can keep exchanging."

"I see," Bakura said. "For each person we teleport over, there will have to be a monster sacrificed by the other person because the exchange won't happen unless there is a monster or card in the other box, and we're obviously not going to put a _person_ in that box."

"Exactly. So you or me will have to pick monsters we'll be willing to sacrifice to get the switch to happen."

"Me OR you?" Bakura questioned.

"Well...who will go on which side? I assume you need to be with Diabound over here to make him real, right?"

"Obviously."

"So I'll be on the other side."

"You will."

"Okay...so it's me, then." The Pharaoh took out his deck and started selecting monsters he would sacrifice from it, but stopped. "Wait a moment!" he exclaimed. "The person who _plays_ the card has to be me. The monster on _my_ side will be safe when it teleports, but the monster on the _other_ side is the one that'll be destroyed. _I_ have to be on _this_ side to make sure that the people we send into the box are safe."

Bakura's eyes widened. "What? But then who will be on the other side sacrificing monsters and keeping the Shadow Magic going?"

"You, obviously."

"No no no no no," Bakura said, shaking his finger. "That isn't going to happen. I need to be on _this_ side to keep Diabound and the first box real."

"But the first box is the safe box and needs to be on _my_ side," the Pharaoh countered.

"Again, if you're on _this_ side, who is on the _other_ side? Either you'll have to control Diabound, which won't work because he's connected to my Heart and not yours, or I'll have to control your magic card, which...either I won't be able to do or you won't let me do."

The Pharaoh shook his head. "I'm not going to take the chance of that not working, for obvious reasons. And I'm sure those reason are obvious to you as well." His flicked his eyes at Flora, Emmy, Yugi, and Ryou.

Bakura nodded. "They are. But then what do we do?"

"You'll just have to use a card that copies or steals my card, so you can use it as your own without me having to give it to you."

Bakura smirked. "Luckily, I'm a good thief." He pointed at his deck and two cards floated out of it. The two cards floated in midair, facing him. He turned one card around. "I stole this from a certain someone, no need to tell you who." It was a magic card, Double Spell. "I'll use this card to copy YOUR magic card. But I need to sacrifice one of my own magic cards to activate it, and I chose this one." He turned the other card around, which was the Pot of Greed magic card. "I don't need Pot of Greed one right now because we're pretty much drawing whatever the hell we want, so it isn't needed."

"Okay..."

"It copies a magic card from your graveyard, so you'll have to just destroy the card first."

"You know I can't just send a card to the graveyard for no reason."

"Then use it on one of my monsters and one of your own, then end your 'turn' so the card goes to the graveyard."

"Well, you have to summon something first and then end your 'turn'."

"Okay..." Bakura moved another card out of the deck. He put it in front of him. The Millenium Ring glowed, the glow moved to the card, and a second later, a weak monster appeared a few feet in front of and off to the side of Bakura. No one besides him recognized because he had put it in Ryou's deck himself. "There. I end my turn."

"Okay. Good thing Dark Magician Girl is still out."

The Dark Magician Girl perked up from her bored stance and smiled.

Yugi looked at her. "Get ready," he told her.

The Pharaoh took the Mystic Box card and put it in the magic/trap card slot underneath the spot Dark Magician girl was on. "Now I'll activate Mystic Box and switch our monsters, but destroy yours."

Two identical boxes appeared around each monster. The three sections of the door on each box closed one by one. Then, swords went into the slots of the box containing the Dark Magician Girl.

Or did it?

Emmy gasped.

Seconds later, the boxes opened again. Dark Magician Girl came out of the untouched box, while the skewered box contained Bakura's weak monster. Everyone looked at if for a few seconds, then the monster shattered and was destroyed.

Ryou looked at his dark, expecting the spirit to flinch. But he didn't. Ryou suspected that this was because the card wasn't connected to his heart, like Diabound and Dark Necrofear were.

The two boxes disappeared. Dark Magician Girl floated next to Bakura, and her card moved from the Pharaoh's Duel Disk to join the other cards in front of Bakura.

Bakura looked at her with a triumphant smirk on his face, as it he had accomplished something great. She looked at him with a mistrusting look on her face. Then her expression turned worried and she looked at Yugi.

Yugi smiled reassuringly at her. "Don't worry, he won't do anything to you. We'll get you back when we get back up."

She smiled and nodded.

"Hey, Pharaoh," Bakura said, "how does it feel to see one of your favorite and signature monsters under my control?"

The Pharaoh pouted epically.

Bakura's eyes widened and his smirk faded. "Alright alright! No need to use the Epic Pouting Manuver."

Yami and Yugi air-fived and grinned at each other.

"I end my turn," the Pharaoh said. The magic card he had just used flew out of the slot and into the graveyard.

"Good," Bakura said. "Now my turn." He had kept the Double Spell and Pot of Greed magic cards near him in midair. Pot of Greed moved back into his pocket, which was the "graveyard" for him, and moved Double Spell to his floating "field", activating it. "Now I discard Pot of Greed to activate Double Spell. I'm targeting your Mystic Box in your graveyard and copying it to use as my own." Double Spell suddenly changed, and looked like Mystic Box had. "Now I can use it for my own. We're ready to start switching."

The Pharaoh nodded.

"Get over here. I'm having the box up here. You're going first."

The Pharaoh whispered to Emmy and Layton to move over, which they did. Then he carefully stood up. "Make way for the King of Games, folks," he announced as he prepared to walk through the center of the rows in front of him.

Kaiba and Mokuba rolled their eyes and shifted over a bit to give him room.

He walked down the aisle to the snake head of the tail. He stepped on top of it and joined Bakura on it. Ryou moved out of the way. "Hi," the Pharaoh said to the evil British spirit.

"Shut the bugger up," Bakura replied.

"Nice to see you, too. Now let's do this."

"Hm," Bakura said with a nod. Both yamis turned to Mokuba.

"Mokuba, what is there in the room we can target to put the sword box around?"

"Uh..." Mokuba said in thought. "I think you should try to target one of the chairs."

"Okay. Pharaoh, ready?"

"Ready."

The two darks closed their eyes tight and concentrated. Their Millenium Items glowed brightly.

Yugi and Ryou also closed their eyes and concentrated. The moved closer to their darks and held their hands. The yamis didn't notice them.

The Items grew slightly brighter. The Ring glowed slightly brighter. The glow went from the Ring to the Mystic Box card copy.

Suddenly, a box like the one on the card appeared around Yami (but not Yugi, because Yugi wasn't directly next to him), resting on the leveled surface of the snake head. It was the one with the sword slots. It closed panel by panel; first the legs, then the torso, then the head.

Swords appeared around the box, aimed as the various slots in it.

Everyone held their breaths.

The swords slid into the slots of the box.

Everyone except for the two Bakuras either flinched, gasped, or cringed.

Nothing moved for a few more seconds. Each of those seconds felt like a minute.

Then, the top panel of the box's door opened. Nothing was visible.

Those who were cringing stopped doing so.

Then, the middle and bottom panels swing open together.

Impaled by all of the swords was one of the chairs from the room.

Flora, Mokuba, and Luke cheered in delight, saying "yes, he did it" and stuff like that.

Ryou moved away from Bakura and opened his eyes. He saw that Yugi had disappeared, which meant that the Pharaoh had obviously done the same. "We're not done yet," the spirit said, keeping his eyes closed. "We still need to send someone over and see if he sends a monster back. Also..." He quickly made another card move from his deck to his "field" activated it. A giant shield appeared between the box and everyone else. The next instant, the sound of wood exploding and splintering could be heard and shards of wood could be seen falling out and down. Then, the shelf disappeared. The card Bakura had just activated went into his pocket "graveyard".

"Yeah. The chair just exploded," he explained. "That's what happens when monsters are destroyed. The chair served as a monster, so it exploded. I just saved all of your asses. Your welcome. Now..."

The swords left the box. "Who's first?"

Everyone looked at everyone else, waiting for someone to volunteer.

Layton and Kaiba said that they would wait for Mokuba and Flora to go.

That left Emmy and Luke.

"I'll go," Emmy said.

She started to stand up. But Luke beat her to it. "Stand aside and let the Professor's apprentice take care of this!" He stood up and ran over to the box.

"But— Luke—" Emmy stuttered. Then she facepalmed and just gave it up and let him go.

He stepped bravely into the box. "You'd better know what's you're doing," he said to Bakura.

He didn't open his eyes, and just nodded. "I do."

The box closed.

Everyone held their breaths again.

The swords impaled the box.

Seconds later (but the seconds actually felt like seconds this time), the box reopened.

Luke was gone. In his place was Jaden's hair. Oops wait... I meant Kuriboh.

The little furball had his eyes closed and was flailing about, struggling to get free, and making tiny little pained noises.

Moments later, he exploded and disappeared.

The swords left the box.

This time, the adults and Ryou also cheered.

"Okay," Bakura said. "Let's pick up the speed. I'm getting tired of this."

"I'll go next," Emmy said. She stood up, stepped carefully between Flora and Mokuba, and walked up to the box. She stepped inside. "Ready."

The box closed, then the procedure repeated.

When the box opened up again, a monster that looked like Kuriboh was there, but it had wings. Winged Kuriboh.

He exploded just like the first one had done. The swords came out of the box.

"Next?" Bakura asked.

"Me," Kaiba said. He stood up. "Bakura, have Flora and Mokuba go together. They're small enough to fit in the box together."

Ryou made a face that said he clearly objected to this.

"I don't want Yami or Bakura to pass out before both other them get through."

THAT, Ryou was okay with.

"Yes, fine, whatever," Bakura said. "Just get in, Moneybags."

"Shut up, gay albino." Kaiba walked up to the box and stepped inside.

This time, when the box reopened, there was a pink fuzzball in the swords. Watapon. It exploded just like the Kuribohs had.

"Next!" Yami Bakura said sharply. "Flora! Mokuba! You two are up."

Mokuba stood up, then turned to Flora and held out a hand to help her stand. Without hesitation, she took the hand and stood up. Still holding hands, the tall of them carefully walked to and inside the box.

They turned and faced outwards. Flora looked at the Professor. He had stood up and was waving at her. She waved back with her free hand.

Ryou again wished that Flora could see and hear him so he could give her some reassurance.

"We're ready," Mokuba said to Yami Bakura.

"Okay. Here we go."

The box door panels closed up from bottom to top.

Even inside the box, they could still see because of the light that came in through the sword slots in the back and sides of the box.

They looked at each other, then out the slots.

Through them, the two of them could see various swords appearing, each one aimed straight at a slot.

The two looked at each other again and held the other's gaze. "Well, here we go," Flora said to Mokuba.

Mokuba closed his eyes. Flora didn't. She looked at the slots just in time to see the swords rushing towards her. She screamed, and this scream got louder when she felt the tips of the swords poke her. She hugged Mokuba tightly and shouted, "RYOU!"

Then she quieted and the touch of the swords vanished instantly.

* * *

_~Still in the giant room~_

Ryou was closer to the box than anyone else. He had heard Flora mumble something before the swords had gone in the box.

But then when the swords had gone into the box, Ryou could have sworn that he had heard Flora's voice scream "R—" before it silenced abruptly.

He jumped and cringed at the same time. Obviously, Flora had been frightened by the swords. Understandable. But she was okay...right?

He hoped with all his heart that she was. He stared at the box and watched as it opened up and revealed a ladybug-looking thing: Four Star Lady Bug. It exploded and disappeared.

He relaxed a little, but not completely.

"Host. Professor. Relax," Yami Bakura said. "She's fine." Ryou looked at Layton and and saw that the Professor looked a bit like how he felt: worried. Had he heard Flora's scream as well?

"Layton, in you go."

Layton walked over to the box and stepped inside. Thanks to fanfiction convenience, his hat fit.

The procedure repeated.

When the box opened, Ryou could clearly see Cyber Jar impaled by the swords. Then it exploded and disappeared.

"Okay, Ryou. Our turn." Yami Bakura opened his eyes. He took Dark Magician Girl's card off of the Duel Disk and put it into a pocket other than the one that served as his graveyard. She faded away once the card was away.

Then, Yami Bakura stepped inside the box. He took Doabound's card and also put it in his pocked with Dark Magician Girl. Diabound faded away as well, but the box stayed suspended in the air.

Yami Bakura held out a hand to Ryou. "You might want to get in here with me to prevent a major headache once we teleport to the other side.

Ryou hesitated for an instant.

"In other words, get in here now," Yami Bakura added.

Ryou nodded and took the hand. Because of their bond, the dark was able to pull the light into the box with him. He instinctively held Ryou protectively as the door closed.

"Ready," the spirit asked.

"Ready," the hikari replied.

The swords went into the box. Ryou could feel the swords gently poke his body's skin through their mind link. Despite his invulnerability, he squeezed his eyes shut tightly.

Then, the feeling of the swords disappeared, and the lighting changed...

* * *

_~In the giant room still...~_

When the box opened, a pink squishy blob was left behind in the swords: Marshmallon. It squirmed for a moment, then shattered and disappeared.

With no source of magic keeping it real or in existence, and the card's owner having teleported away, the Box with the swords in it disappeared.

The unknown light source in the room shut off, plunging everything into total darkness.

* * *

**Unfortunately, none of the chapters after this one have been written out in any sort of way. I'll have to wing them all. Oh boy (~_~')**

**To bring you up to speed and give you a few reminders...  
Where we've been: the room, the LBFs, the Blue Chute area, the room again, chambers/giant room  
POVs we've seen: Mokuba and Flora, Emmy and Seto, Ryou and Yugi, Yami and Bakura...I think Layton and Luke are the only POVs we haven't touched yet. All in good time, my friends.**

**BTW, I now have the whole Ninja Guy backstory/plotpoint all sorted out, as well as the plotpoints/events of Flora and Ryou's meeting, how the two fandoms teamed up together, and how they're all going to end up getting-...*doesn't finish sentence*  
*winks* I'll let you finish that sentence... heh heh heh...**

**Next chapter:  
Back In The Building (AKA Invisibility Issues)**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	23. Back In The Building

**SORRY FOR BEING LATE! IM SORRY! I PROMISED I WOULDN'T! I LET YOU DOWN (T ~ T). Meh. I have more chapters planned, and more written for them as of now, so I SHOULDN'T miss the next one. I'll give you another chapter this week to make up for it. (if I can finish it in time...)**

**Another fun fact! This chapter was written on my newer iPod, as opposed to my older iPod!  
****We've reached that point when I only start writing the next chapter AFTER I update the one before it...urgh... I'm cutting it close here.**

**OMG STUFF GETS REAL ALL UP IN THIS CHAPTER! **

**Also, we're going to start calling Ryou by his first name more often. This is because all of you, as well as everyone in the story, is starting to know him more as Ryou than as Bakura.**

_I do not own the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game or show, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, Duel Monsters, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 23: Back In The Building•

When the box opened again, a strange sight met them. First of all, they almost tripped over Flora and Mokuba, who were on the floor directly in front of the box hugging and trembling. Then, they saw Yami looking absolutely pained and exhausted a few feet away, in Emmy's arms. It looked like he had almost fainted, but Emmy had caught him. Luke was also looking a bit shaken, and was being calmed down by Layton. Yugi was on the ground next to the box, holding his head as if he had a headache. Kaiba was next to Flora and Mokuba, trying to get Mokuba to let go of Flora.

Ryou did a double take and his eyes locked on them. He wrestled control of his body from his yami and stepped out of the box. It disappeared when he did. He knelt down beside Flora and tried to pull her away from Mokuba.

With both him _and_ Kaiba working at it, they finally pulled the two kidnapees apart.

The moment Flora was away from Mokuba, she turned to Ryou and wrapped her arms around him. She was shaking, but she was silent and not crying. Ryou rubbed her back soothingly. "Flora, sweetie," he said calmingly, "are you alright?" He carefully stood both of them up.

She leaned away from him so he could see her face. He eyes were wide, but her pupils were narrow. "Y-yes I'm fine," she said with a slow nod. "But those swords just...they scared me!"

He pulled her close and rested her head on his shoulder. "I know, I know. Shocked me quite a bit as well. I didn't know. If I had, I would have warned you." He looked around her and at Luke and Mokuba.

Mokuba was hugging his brother tightly. Luke was listening to the Professor mumble something to him, and was nodding while staring straight a head. He looked a bit shaken, but that was all. "For being younger than you, Luke seems surprisingly fine by comparison," Ryou commented.

Flora lifted her head and turned to look at Luke. "I know," she said. "Luke has been through a lot more than me, and has been in much more dangerous situations. He's used to it, for the most part."

Ryou nodded understandingly. Then he frowned and remembered that she and Mokuba had been hugging. "Flora..." he said tentatively, a barely noticeable hint of anger in his voice. "Why we're you and Mokuba hugging?"

Flora looked back at Ryou. "Oh... He was probably just as scared as I was. We were hugging when we teleported. When the doors opened, we both took a step out and just fell to the ground. I was feeling a bit dizzy when we teleported."

Ryou nodded, and kept his eyes locked on Mokuba, a small frown on his face.

"Mokuba!" he shouted.

Mokuba looked away from Kaiba. "Yeah?" His eyes widened when he noticed Ryou's slightly angry expression.

"Do you mind staying away from Flora?" Ryou asked in a calm voice, trying to keep his anger out of it. "Keep your feelings under control, okay?"

Mokuba and Flora looked at Ryou incredulously. "What?!" they both cried.

"Ryou...what do you mean by that?" Flora asked.

"You mean his little crush?" Kaiba asked.

"WHAT?!" Yami, Yugi, Flora, and Mokuba all cried.

"Who told you?" Mokuba asked defensively. Then he realized that he might have just confirmed it. He blushed and turned away from Flora and pulled away from his brother.

Flora took a step away from Ryou and looked at Mokuba's back. "Mokuba..." she called out softly. "Is that true? Do you..."

"I do!" Mokuba blurted out. "Okay?! But I'm getting over it. It's nothing to worry about."

Flora frowned. "I would hope so. Ryou is right. You has to control your feelings. You're a great friend, Mokuba. But I don't like you in that way. I'm with Ryou, okay? Sorry."

"Flora," Ryou whispered into her ear. "You don't have to apologize. And don't worry about it. He's not Clive."

Flora nodded.

Mokuba mumble something incoherent. Then, he suddenly jumped and whipped around. "Oh crap the gun!" he shouted.

"What?" Layton and Kaiba said.

Flora and Mokuba exchanged glances, then looked at their respective "relatives". "Flora," Mokuba said, "I guess it's time to tell them."

"Yeah. I guess so." She turned to Layton. "Professor, remember when we said something about an invisible gun?"

"Yes..." Layton said cautiously. "Why?"

"Well," Mokuba continued, "when we tried to escape, we knocked out a guard and took his guns. I took the real gun, but it was taken away from me later. Flora took the invisible gun but..."

"No one remembered to take it away from me." Flora pointed to the holster. It sagged a little bit, as if there was a gun in it weighing it down.

Everyone gasped.

"YOU HAD THAT THIS ENTIRE TIME?!" everyone shouted. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US?!"

The two of them winced at their collective volume.

Everyone stared at the two of them with expectant looks on their faces. By this time, Yami had recovered enough and was sitting up on his own. Emmy and Kaiba had stood up straight. Yugi had also recovered and was floating in midair.

Mokuba opened his mouth to speak. But Flora held up a hand to stop this. "No, Mokuba. Allow me." She moved away from Ryou and closer to Mokuba. "We had forgotten about this until Mokuba and Ryou switched chambers. Mokuba told me not to tell anyone because it would create a fuss over it. Plus, Ninja Guy might have been watching, and would have been reminded about it."

"It's unlikely that he's watching," Emmy said. "He would have tried to stop us already."

"Yes well..."

Mokuba interrupted. "It doesn't matter why we didn't tell you! What matters is that I have to teach Flora how to use it."

"WHAT?!" everyone shouted again. Especially Ryou and the Professor Layton characters.

"N-no!" Ryou stuttered. "No way! Just give it to someone who knows how to use it. If we continue forward and are seen, they might target her if they know she has a weapon."

"They won't see it," Mokuba countered. "It's invisible. You know that."

"These blokes are experts with these guns!" Ryou replied. "And she isn't."

"Well obviously I'll teach her," Mokuba retorted.

The two of them took several steps closer to each other, also moving closer to Flora in doing so.

"We have no time for that! We have to get out of here as soon as possible! Give it to someone who can use it!"

"Who would that be? Certainly not you or Yugi or the Professor or Emmy or Luke!"

"You, your brother, and my yami have used one before and know how."

"Ryou!" the Professor shouted sternly. "You are _not_ going to let the other Bakura take over. And none of the minors among us are going to be using it if I can help it. Seto will be using it."

"No I will not!" Kaiba said. "I already have to deal with a Duel Disk, and look after Mokuba. I'm not going to divide my attention between those and an invisible gun! That takes too much too manage while multitasking. Mokuba will do it."

"I shouldn't," Mokuba said. "I already shot two people and they might target me."

"You _what_?!" Kaiba cried.

"Do I get a say in the matter?!" someone shouted, louder than everyone else in the room.

Everyone shut up and looked at Flora. She had her arms tense straight and tense at her sides, her eyes were shut tightly, and she looked upset.

She opened her eyes and glared at each person around her in turn. When everyone had met her gaze, she relaxed. "Thank you."

She walked to the center of the group, where everyone could see her.

Her expression lightened. "Listen, please. Ryou, Professor." She looked at each of them in turn. "I know that you both want me to be safe. And that's good. But..." Her face turned angry for a moment. "I'm not a child. I can defend myself. And if Mokuba can handle a real gun, surely I can handle an invisible gun. No one will be expecting me to have it. They might expect you to have brought weapons of some sort, but if they haven't taken it away by now then they obviously don't know about it. I can learn I promise. I want to be able to protect myself." She stood up straight, her stance proud, brave, and confident. "I'm not going to be helpless here. I'm going to fight, not just stand by and watch you fight for me. I can do this. Mokuba will teach me how to use it, and I'll help and use it if needed. I'll be okay. I promise." She looked at Ryou and took a step towards him. "Ryou, do you remember that day? _That_ da_y_*****?"

Ryou nodded.

"I helped myself, didn't I? And I can help myself now. Just let me do this. Please?"

Ryou's eyes were filled with worry, but also understanding. He smiled and nodded at her. "Fine. You can keep it."

"I second that," Kaiba said.

"As do I," Emmy added.

"I was already fine with it," Yami admitted.

"If she can," Luke said.

Everyone turned to Layton.

A few moments later, he nodded as well. "Alright. As long as you can handle it."

"Yes!" Mokuba and Flora cheered.

"Okay," Mokuba said. "I already told her _what_ it could do. I just need to tell her _how_."

"Right," Flora said.

Yugi and Yami switched out. Yugi's body returned to its short height once he was in control.

Ryou walked over to Yugi, took the Dark Magician Girl out of his pocket, and handed it to him. "Here," he said. "Sorry that my evil gay alter ego took this from you, even if it was to help us escape."

Yugi took the card from him. "Don't worry about it, Bakura. At least we're out alive."

"Now we just wait for Flora and Mokuba to finish and we'll get out of here."

"Right."

"While you two do your thing," Emmy said, "Ryou and Yugi should rest on the couch. Everyone eat and drink up!" She pointed to the table and couch. On the table, there was more food and several plates and some juice and soda and water and several cups. "A note on the table said for anyone who gets this note to meet on the 19th floor, at a time that was about half an hour ago, but can have some food before they go up. It's safe to say that all of that should be safe to eat, and no one should be coming in here any time soon. Help yourselves."

No one had realized how hungry and thirsty they all were. Everyone helped themselves as much as they wanted. Then Ryou and Yugi laid down on the couch. Ryou chose the side closer to the adjacent wall so he would be facing Flora and Mokuba. Luke decided to sit near the table, next to Ryou.

"So we need to use something as targets, don't we?" Flora said.

"You could use the books," Luke suggested.

"That's a great idea, Luke," Flora said.

"But we need someone who is good with angles to help position them."

"That would be me," Layton said.

"Right," Flora said with a nod. "And we need someone to hold them up. Unless we use the chairs..."

"No need to worry about that," Layton said. "I'll organize everything so that it'll be perfectly set-up for your practice."

He immediately got to work setting up some of the books on the remaining chairs in the room (only three, now that the fourth had been destroyed), the floor, the bookshelf above the door, and even volunteered to hold one of them in his hand. He whispered to Mokuba about how the books would need to be arranged. They arranged everything near and against the wall next to the door and under the bookshelf which was _still_ lodged between the door frame and the ceiling.

When everything was ready, Mokuba walked over to Flora and looked her in the eyes. "Are you ready?"

Without hesitation in her voice, but a hint of hesitation in her hand, she took out the invisible gun, held it with both hands, and said, "Ready."

* * *

**This chapter is kinda-sorta split into two parts, but will be kept as one whole chapter.**

* * *

•Chapter 23: Invisibility Issues•

The door was closed, and had been closed the entire time as far as Yami and Yugi knew. Mokuba and Flora briefly explained that no one would hear them despite the door having a window because the room was soundproofed one way.

Mokuba and Flora positioned themselves near the books.

They began.

"Now," Mokuba began, "you know how I told you that two of its functions require you to turn a thingy in the front?"

Flora nodded.

"Okay. Put your hand on it so I know you know where it is."

Flora located and put her hand on a rotatable dial around the very front of the barrel of the gun.

"Good," Mokuba said. He could only assume she was touching the right thing, because he couldn't see it himself. "If you turn it once to the right, that's how it shoots the ice bullets I told you about earlier. Turn it back, it reverts to normal bullets. Turn it once to the left, the bullets become fire. Try both of those right now."

Flora nodded hesitantly. She was uneasy about what she was about to do, but she had insisted that she would be fine and could do it. So she would do it.

"Aim at the books on the floor."

Flora turned the dial to the left, then aimed her invisible gun at one of the books on the floor leaning against the wall she was facing. She put her pointer finger on the trigger.

"Whenever you're ready," Mokuba said. He turned to the others. "Don't worry," he said, noticing that Ryou and Luke were covering their ears. "It won't be that loud. Trust me."

They uncovered their ears.

Flora hesitated for a moment, then she pulled the trigger. A fireball the size of a bullet came out of the barrel, the flame a reddish pink.

The slight recoil from the invisible gun made Flora flinch and lean back slightly. She closed her eyes for a moment. Then she straightened and looked to see if she had hit the mark.

She had. Now, there was a small fire on the book she had aimed at. The small fire started to spread a little, but not very fast.

"Great job, Flora," Mokuba praised.

"That was pretty good aim for her first time shooting _any_ kind of gun," Kaiba commented.

"Thank you," Flora said.

"Now the other one!" Mokuba said quickly. "Hurry! It's ice, so it'll put out the fire before it spreads."

She turned the dial one click to the right, setting it to normal. Then she turned it to the right once more.

"Shoot! Now!"

She aimed at the same book, then pulled the trigger. The same thing happened to her, with her flinching and stuff. The difference was what had come out of the gun. This time, it was a bullet-sized shard of sky blue ice that could be mistaken for a small hailstone. It flew at the book, then hit it in the same spot the fireball had hit.

After a split second of a small blue cloud of dust forming around the impact spot, the ice attached itself to the book and spread. It continued spreading until the entire book was encased in ice. Even the flame from the first bullet was now frozen solid.

"That's amazing!" Luke breathed. "How is that fire...frozen?"

"Invisible guns are magic," Ryou explained. "You should be used to magic and such things by now, shouldn't you?"

"It's not like this happens on a daily basis. I've seen some pretty amazing things but... I'm still hung up on the fact that the gun is invisible."

"Says the boy who can talk to animals," Ryou said jokingly.

"Hm...can't argue with that."

"Your aim is amazing!" Mokuba exclaimed. "How are you aiming so perfectly?!"

Flora shrugged and tried to think of an answer. She looked behind her at everyone else. Then her eyes lit up in realization and she had her answer. She looked at Mokuba and said, "Fanficiton convenience?"

"Why does everyone use that as the answer for everything?!" Kaiba asked in exasperation.

"It's a crossover," Yugi said. "We've already cracked the Fourth Wall like ten times already, so we're not really going to do any more harm."

"Yeah but _which_ fandom is the abridged one? And _which_ fandom is more skilled at breaking the Wall?"

"Don't make me go all Malignant Growth****** on you!" Luke shouted. "There's nothing wrong with our fandom! We can break the Fourth Wall a bit if we want."

"Luke's right," Emmy added. "We have permits."

Kaiba's eyes widened. "Wait...you have _permits_ to break the Fourth Wall?!"

"We do," Emmy replied. "And maybe if _you_ people got yourself some, you wouldn't get banned from YouTube so many times."

"Can we _please_ stop breaking the Wall?" Ryou pleaded. "It's making my head hurt a little."

"Luke, please stop," Flora requested on Ryou's behalf.

Luke gave her a look just for a moment, then nodded.

Emmy nodded as well.

"Back off, bro," Mokuba added.

"Shut up, Mokuba," Kaiba replied.

Mokuba turned to Flora. "Okay. So moving on. Next. Going through things. You have to hold the gun sideways to do that. It doesn't matter which side."

Flora held the gun normally, then turned her hands so that the gun was on its side.

"Click it back," Mokuba instructed.

Flora reset the gun to use normal bullets.

"Now...Professor, we'll need your help with this."

Layton had been leaning against the wall, holding a book. He moved away from the wall and held the book in both hands, one hand on the top and one hand on the bottom. He walked to a certain spot and held the book up so that, from where Flora was standing, it was directly between her and a book that was standing upright in the bookshelf above the door. "Aim for this book," Layton instructed her. "I trust your aim enough that you'll shoot the book, and not me."

Flora smiled and nodded. She aimed at the book Layton was holding up.

"Go ahead."

Keeping the gun sideways, Flora fired. Out came a single normal bullet, which shot straight at the book. But instead of hitting the book, the bullet sailed straight through! It didn't leave a mark on the book, and it didn't even move the book at all. It had hit, knocked over, and gotten stuck in the thick book that was on the bookshelf. From where she stood, Flora couldn't see this. "What happened?" she asked Mokuba.

"It went through," Mokuba replied.

Layton lowered the book and moved over to the bookshelf. He was able to retrieve the other book, and he held both up for everyone to see. Everyone, including Flora, looked at both books. He turned them around so both sides could be seen. His book was completely unharmed. The other book had the bullet lodged in it, and it had touched the back cover but not gone through, due to how thick the book was.

When everyone was done murmuring their reactions, Layton put both books on the shelf and walked back over to the wall.

"Wow...It went through, right?" Flora asked. "I didn't simply miss?"

Mokuba shook his head. "We already figured out that you have perfect aim. You hit it. The bullet went through."

Flora nodded. "Uh huh. Okay."

"Next... Hold it the right way."

Flora simply lowered her hands.

"Hold it upside-down and aim it at that book right there." Mokuba pointed to a book on the ground, leaning against the wall.

She gave him a confused look, which he returned with an expectant one. She raised her arms, kept the gun facing forwards, and held it upside-down. "How do I even fire..."

"Pinkies," Mokuba replied.

"Oh..."

Flora still was getting used to firing, but had gotten used to the recoil. She pulled the trigger.

Instead of making a hole in the book, the bullet bounced off of the book and ricocheted towards a book on a chair.

"WHOA!" Flora cried. "That's..."

"How to make it bounce off," Mokuba finished for her. "Yeah. Useful to bluff your shot, and to hit targets hiding behind stuff. Next one. Hold it the right way."

Flora turned the gun so it was upside-up again.

"Now hold the gun backwards."

She turned the gun so she was holding it backwards. Instead of her pointer finger in the trigger, it was her thumb. "Okay?"

Mokuba took hold of her arms and moved her to a certain spot and had her face a certain direction and angle.

"Now shoot it, but duck immediately afterwards."

"Why? What does this one do?"

"You'll see. Trust me."

Flora nodded. She did as he asked. She pulled the trigger, then ducked. Pulling the trigger didn't make any noise, but something_ did_ come out of the gun.

And it shot right at Ryou. Mokuba had positioned Flora and turned her so that her back was directly facing Ryou, and the gun had aimed at him.

No one had a chance to react before whatever it was hit him right in the face.

"Ow bloody freaking hell!" he shouted in pain.

Flora turned around and stood up just in time to see this. She realized what she had done. Or rather, what Mokuba had made her do. "Mokuba!" she cried. "What did you—" She cut herself off when she noticed that Ryou was fine. He was holding his cheek—which had been hit—in pain with one hand. Then he moved the hand away.

Everyone murmured in confusion and shock. What had Mokuba just done?

Flora was about to run over to Ryou to see if he was alright, but then she noticed something happening to him. She noticed the scratch on his face that had been caused by the Millenium Puzzle back in the chambers, but everyone had forgotten about. It was still there, and the blood had dried.

But as Flora watched, the scratch healed and his skin smoothed out, leaving behind only the blood dried on his face.

Ryou felt his cheek again and gasped. He looked at Flora in amazement, then at Mokuba with gratitude. "Wow," he said. "Thank you very much for that, Mokuba."

Flora turned to Mokuba, and found him smiling at Ryou. "Of course. Can I also add to your 'your welcome' that I'm _not_ after Flora or trying to take her away from you?"

Ryou pulled his mouth into a tight line and nodded. "I understand. Sorry."

"It's fine."

"Wait..." Flora said. "So what did that do, exactly?"

"Oh," Mokuba said. "Holding it backwards, which is intended to be shooting at yourself, gives the bullets healing power. Basically, if you get shot, shooting yourself heals yourself. But you have to hold the gun backwards."

"That's very useful," Flora commented.

"It is."

"So that's pretty much it. You can fire a normal shot if you want, but it's pretty much like shooting a normal gun, and just as loud."

"If you're done with your little training thing," Kaiba said as he walked over to Mokuba, "then we should start making our way out of here."

Flora and Mokuba nodded. Flora put the invisible gun in the holster around her waist. She walked over to Ryou as Kaiba led Mokuba over to the others.

"I agree," Layton said, walking over to the rest of the group as well. "I don't think it would be wise to try our previous plan again. We need to come up with a new plan of action."

Flora sat down on the floor near Ryou, and Ryou lovingly petted her hair with one hand. Mokuba didn't react one bit. He sat down on the other side of the table from them, without a chair, and helped himself to another jelly filled donut.

"Yugi," Emmy suddenly said. "How's Yami? Is he..."

"He's all rested up and regained his energy," Yugi replied, "but I'll be keeping control for now."

Emmy's face went neutral. "That's fine."

"I'm still shocked that he kept this from me for so long."

Emmy shrugged. "I have no control over what he does and doesn't tell you."

"Yeah...but still... How did I not notice...?"

"Emmy? Yugi?" Layton said, bringing said persons attentions to him. "Focus. We need to figure out another plan of action."

"Can we do it in the next chapter?" Flora asked. "I'm a bit worn out from the gun training. I haven't a clue why. She covered her mouth and looked at Ryou, who had taken his hand off of her head. "Oops. Sorry, Ryo," she said apologetically.

"It's fine," Ryou said. "Just don't do it too much. I don't want one of my fangirls breaking in here through the Wall."

Flora nodded understandingly.

"Well, I suppose you can rest for a moment before we talk," Layton said. "You too, Mokuba. I'll put the books out of the way."

The two kidnapees nodded. While they refilled, Layton put the chairs and books away.

* * *

***This is intentional. It was not an error. She put emphasis on the "y" when she said it. (This is basically an insider thing between the two of them.)  
**I think I mentioned this before. Professor Layton and the Malignant Growth is a short series on YouTube that parodies the Professor Layton games. There are currently only 5 or 6 episodes in existence, last I checked. Be warned, if you want to go check it out. Language is...not very... there's a lot of cursing in it. It's rated...T or...something. I don't know. It's awesome, okay? End of story, 'nuff said.**

**So the next several chapters, they'll be trying to escape the building! Will they succeed?!  
Maybe.  
Maybe not.  
You figure it out.**

**Next chapter:  
Escape Attempt Number...Something**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	24. Escape Attempt Number,,,Something

**Here's your second chapter of the week! (the first was uploaded Sunday). We'll go back to 1 chapter a week with no missed updates because I've gotten far enough ahead. I have about the next three of four chapters typed out and ready to edit.**

**(Actually, it's escape number 6. See the EndingAN for explanation.)**

**Yep! They're going to try to get out!  
Again.  
Will they succeed?  
****Probably not.  
But you already figured that out, didn't you? ;)**

_I do not own the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game or show or manga, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, Duel Monsters, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 24: Escape Attempt Number...Something•

"I think we should just stick together," Emmy said. "Splitting up certainly didn't help us one bit."

"I agree," Layton said. "We would be better off sticking together. Our combined advantages would be best just like that, combined, instead of split up."

"So then we'll just bust out of here as one group," Kaiba said. "Simple. Now the question is, _how_ are we getting out of here?"

"The best way to get out will by going to the first floor and finding an escape route from there," Layton said. "Flora, Mokuba, you two should lead the way. I have a feeling that the guards brought you to this room via the fastest route possible."

"Okay," Flora said. "Mokuba knows the way better than I do. Mokuba, lead the way."

Mokuba nodded. Then he looked down one end of the hallway. Then down the other end. He pointed to the right. "This way!" he shouted. He took off running.

"Slow down, Mokuba!" everyone shouted, just before taking off after him.

* * *

Mokuba finally stopped running. They had reached a staircase. Everyone stopped to catch their breath, including Mokuba.

Interestingly, they hadn't run into any guards, puzzles, or mini-duels. They must all have been somewhere else.

Even more interestingly, no one thought of that as odd at that moment.

"This is the only way I've memorized to get out," Mokuba said when he had caught his breath. "Stairs."

"But we need a keycard to get access to them," Flora reminded him. "A _working_ keycard."

"NOOOOOO!" Kaiba cried. "The stairs! My mortal enemy!"

"Didn't you pass or go through the stairs on the way in here, Seto?" Mokuba asked.

"Shut up, Mokuba," Kaiba replied.

"So how will we get to the first floor?" Ryou asked.

"We could go the way we busted in here," Yugi suggested. "You know, the way the six of us went when we were breaking in? We didn't have to pass any staircases that required keycard entry."

"That _is_ a good idea," Layton said. "But that might take too long. We might have to pass the same obstacles on the way out that we did on the way in. We don't have any time to waste on that route."

"Is there another way to the first floor?" Emmy asked the two kidnappees.

The two of them only needed a moment of thinking before they burst out, "BCE!"

"BCE?" Ryou repeated.

"Blue Chute Elevator," Flora elaborated. "The only elevator in the building that goes to the first floor and also into the LBFs. We know how to get there! We've been there before."

Mokuba nodded. "Right! The floor layout on the first floor should be the same as on this floor. Right?"

"I can tell you," Ryou said. "Give me a moment."

He zoned out and was silent for a minute. He occasionally nodded, and his face turned thoughtful once, then back to neutral.

Flora was about to ask him something, but then he zoned back in. "My evil alter ego was the only one who had time to read any of the diagrams we passed. He said that the first five floors have the same floor plan. So, yes, this floor and the first floor have the same layout."

"Great!" Mokuba cried. "We know how to get from the front exit to the stairs, because we weren't blindfolded on the way back up, and we know how to get from the front exit to the elevator. All we have to do is combine those two paths and go from the staircase to the elevator."

"Yes!" Flora said. "Then we can get out! I assume that the rest of you know the way out from there?"

Everyone else nodded.

"So, let's go!" Emmy cried enthusiastically. "Lead the way!"

Mokuba and Flora moved to the front of the group. They took off running, heading through the hallways to get to the Blue Chute Elevator room on the fifth floor.

As they ran, before they made the first turn, Flora put her hand near her gun, Mokuba turned on his vest communicator, Kaiba turned on his talking collar, Yugi and Kaiba activated their Duel Disks, Yugi and Ryou activated their Millenium Items, and Luke and Layton turned on their puzzle recorders.

Everyone was ready to finally bust out of...wherever the hell they all were.

* * *

They reached the elevator without any problems. No guards, no duels, no puzzles...no nothing.

"We're here!" Mokuba and Flora cried. Everyone ran into the blue room that the elevator doors were in. Mokuba and Flora ran straight for the doors. Everyone else stopped before the short hallway leading to the doors so that they could rest for a moment and catch their breaths.

The room was very blue, like the other rooms Flora and Mokuba had seen of the "Blue Chute" (on the 20th and 1st floors, and on LBF1). This one was a different hue of blue, with varying shades of that hue. But the color wasn't important. What was important was that they had reached the BCE.

"That was surprisingly easy," Yugi commented. "We didn't run into anyone or anything."

"Yami said the same thing when we found you, I believe," Emmy said. "He said that it was a bit too easy."

"Well he doesn't know what he was talking about," Kaiba said. "He was just showing off when he said that. I could tell that every single obstacle gave him as much trouble as it gave the rest of us."

"Ahem. I'm right here," Yami said. He was standing next to Yugi, having decided to project himself so he could see what was going on first-hand.

"They can't hear you," Yugi reminded him.

"I know that," the spirit replied.

"It doesn't matter how easy it was," Ryou said. "Let's just be thankful it _was_ easy, and get the bugger out of here."

"I agree with Ryou," Flora said from down the short hall. "Let's just go."

Mokuba had already pressed the button to call the elevator.

"For all we know," he said, "they're probably in a meeting of some sort on the 19th floor. Let's just go while they're distracted."

The blue elevator doors opened up. Mokuba and Flora waved everyone over, then entered the elevator. Everyone ran after them.

"Don't press," Flora warned. "There's a backwards system."

"Pressing 1 will take us to the 20th floor and pressing 20 will take us to the 1st floor," Ryou said in a monotone.

Flora blinked rapidly in surprise and looked at him. His eyes were slightly unfocused. "That's right. How did you know that?"

His eyes focused on her and he purposefully touched the Millenium Ring.

Flora noticed this and nodded, understanding what that meant. "Right. So..."

Mokuba stepped up to the buttons and pressed the (20) button, which was the lowest numbered button.

"Here we go!" he said. He stepped back.

The doors closed. Everyone felt the elevator descending.

A minute later, Ryou spoke up. "Does anyone else get the feeling that we're about to get caught?" he asked.

No one replied for a few seconds.

"Yes," Yugi said. "I have that feeling as well. But I'm sure it's just me being paranoid. There's no way that we're going to get caught."

"Hm... You're probably right."

Another minute later, the elevator stopped moving.

The elevator doors opened.

There were two guards waiting right outside the elevator doors, each with a visible gun and invisible gun in either hand.

* * *

**Here are the different times they've tried to escape. First, Flora and Mokuba from the room. Second, from the LBFs. Third, from the building itself. Fourth, everyone from the room. Fifth, everyone from the chambers. This is the sixth time they've tried to escape.  
In reality, this is only the third escape ATTEMPT. (the first is Flora and Mokuba, second is all of them before falling down, third was this one).**

**Next chapter:  
Once Again, Not Quite**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	25. Once Again, Not Quite

**I know that everyone is REALLY anxious to find out who Ninja Guy is.  
Be patient. You'll find out in due time.**

**Be patient.**

_I do not own the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game or show or manga, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, Duel Monsters, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 25: Once Again, Not Quite•

Everyone gasped.

"AGAIN?!" Flora and Mokuba cried.

Layton, Ryou, and Kaiba moved to the front of the elevator, pushing Luke, Flora, and Mokuba back.

One of the guards dropped a small item on the floor between him and the other guard. The item lit up, and Ninja Guy appeared.

"NINJA GUY!" Yugi shouted.

"A HOLOGRAM OF NINJA GUY!" Kaiba shouted.

"Oh, Kaiba," Yugi said with a sigh. "Always being skeptical and disbelieving."

"No," Ninja Guy said. "I'm a hologram."

"Oh..." Yugi said.

A guard moved his arm in front of and through Ninja Guy's body, confirming that it was, in fact, a hologram.

"And here we are again," Ninja Guy said. "You think you're about to escape and then I come in and tell you that you're horribly mistaken."

Ryou and Yugi put a hand on their Millenium Items.

"Don't bother," Ninja Guy said. "We don't plan to hurt you. But you _might_ want to duck."

"Why?" Kaiba asked.

The guards held their guns up.

"Everyone, get down!" Layton shouted. Emmy pushed Yugi down. Ryou moved back and did the same for Flora. Kaiba also moved back and pushed Mokuba down. Then the three of them also ducked. Layton held onto his hat and ducked as well.

One of the guards—the one who had dropped the small item—shot his real gun. The bullet flew into the elevator.

At the same time, the other guard was holding his invisible gun the way everyone had seen Flora hold hers when she was holding it upside-down. He fired that gun at the exact same time.

Everyone was so tense, they felt like everything was moving in slow motion. They saw it like it was in slow-mo, too.

The bullet from the invisible gun bounced off of the elevator wall. When it bounced back, it hit the bullet from the real gun. It knocked the bullet off course, causing it to fly towards the elevator buttons. Somehow, the bullet from the real gun hit the (2) button straight on.

"Excellent aim!" Ninja Guy praised.

The elevator doors began closing.

All of the minors panicked and everyone stood up.

Just before they closed all the way, Flora saw Ninja Guy's hologram reach out a hand and press a button that was out of sight.

A glass panel suddenly slid over the elevator buttons.

Mokuba noticed and made a wild dash for them. But it was too late. The buttons were untouchable now.

"NO!" Ryou cried. He held up his Millenium Ring with one hand. Mokuba turned around just in time and quickly moved aside. A laser of light came out of the center of the triangle and shot at the glass. Nothing happened, and it just bounced right back to the Ring. The Ring absorbed the light.

"Nice try, Ryo," Flora said reassuringly, walking up to him and putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks," Ryou said, putting his free hand on top of hers. He let go of the Millenium Ring.

"If I understand the Backwards System correctly," Layton said, "we should be heading for the 19th floor, correct?"

Mokuba looked up. "Yup."

"Isn't that where all of the guards are supposed to be?" Luke asked.

"It _should_," Emmy replied. "But there were two guards on the first floor, so obviously _all_ of them aren't there."

"So that note was lying?" Luke asked.

"Not necessarily," Layton said. "It simply isn't credible."

"And this elevator may not connect to wherever they're meeting," Mokuba said. "We don't know the floor plan of the 19th floor, and the Blue Chute Elevator isn't the _only_ elevator in the building."

"Mokuba is right," Flora said. "We could be going to some isolated room for him to capture us again!"

"If they wanted to capture us again," Yugi said, "couldn't those guards simply have taken us right then and there? I mean, they _had_ guns. I'm pretty sure we all would have done whatever they said."

"Yugi has a point," Ryou said. "We might not be heading for our next prison cells. We might be heading for..."

"A major plot point," Kaiba finished.

As they all had been talking, the elevator had continued rising.

At Kaiba's words, the elevator came to a halt.

The doors opened.

They were met by darkness.

* * *

**And so we are quickly approaching the climax!  
Of the story. (Just a little bit of a clarification, for you dirty-minded readers out there XD)**

**The title for the next chapter isn't much of a spoiler. You still don't know anything }:D**

**Next chapter:  
Ninja Guy...s?**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	26. Ninja Guy,,,s?

**THIS IS THE MOMENT THAT ALL OF YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR SINCE LIKE TEN CHAPTERS AGO!**

**That's right. ****WE FIND OUT IF THERE REALLY IS THIEFSHIPPING IN THIS FANFIC!**

**lolz not really. (that happens next chapter). This is the chapter where we find out who Ninja Guy really is. **

**THIS IZ TEH MONENT TAHT U ALLZ HAZ BEEN WAITN FOUR! **

_I do not own the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game or show or manga, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, Duel Monsters, Naruto, Naruto: the Abridged Comedy Fandub Spoof Series Show, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 26: Ninja Guy...s?•

The elevator doors opened. They were in a large and dark room very much like the one with the glass chambers, and with just about the same amount of light. The differences were that the light actually had a visible source: little lights along either side of a metal path that bridged across the empty space from the elevator to the opposite wall. The path was wide, and connected a large platform just outside of the elevator and an identical platform connected to the other wall.

"Not again!" Mokuba whispered.

Everyone walked out of the elevator. The instant the last person had stepped out, the elevator doors closed behind them.

Everyone's heads turned to the sound of the doors closing.

"Elevator issues again," Flora added to Mokuba's comment, still whispering.

"Why are you whispering?" a voice asked, from the other side of the room.

Everyone looked, trying to find the source of the sound.

A light turned on and illuminated something above the ground on the other side of the path.

Ninja Guy was standing on a ledge or balcony of some sort. He had his hands behind his back and was looking down on them.

"Hello again, my friends!" he greeted them, spreading his arms out wide in a mock-welcoming gesture. "Glad to see that you have escaped from the chambers far below the building. This truly proves that all of you are perfectly capable of what we want you to do for us! Smart, skilled, intellectual, experienced in magic, dueling, puzzles, and fighting as well."

"What exactly do you want from us?!" Layton demanded.

"And what makes you think we'll agree to it?" Kaiba asked.

Ninja Guy ignored them and said, "Yes, you are all _definitely_ going to be of use to us!"

"Us?" Emmy repeated. "Don't you mean 'I'?"

"No. I mean _us_. I have not introduced myself properly, have I? You all seem content with calling me 'Ninja Guy'. Cute, but that is not my name. It is _none_ of my names."

"Names?" Emmy repeated. "What..."

"Allow me to introduce myself," Ninja Guy continued. "_All_ of my selves."

He snapped his fingers. A moment later, a section of the wall below him slid away. Everyone looked to see what was being revealed. When they did, they all gasped.

In a room behind the panel, there were what appeared to be two preservation tubes. In them were the unconscious (and clothed) bodies of...

"DESCOLE?!" Emmy and Layton shouted at the same time Flora and Luke cried, "CLIVE!"

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THEM?!" all four of them shouted.

Ninja Guy chuckled. "I haven't done anything to them..." He jumped down from the ledge.

He took something out of his pocket and put it around his neck. It was a necklace with the same eye symbol that was on the Millenium Items Ryou and Yugi had...

Yugi and Ryou gasped. "THE MILLENIUM NECKLACE! Why do you have it?!"

Ninja Guy didn't answer. He simply activated the Necklace. A faint glow shined in the center of the pendant of the Necklace. A second later, the Ring and Puzzle also activated, and began glowing faintly as well. Suddenly, the spirit forms of Yami Bakura and Yami Yugi were visible to everyone there, not just the hikaris. Everyone gasped and their eyes widened at the sight-excluding Yugi and Ryou, who could already see them and noticed no difference.

Kaiba and Flora's eyes were especially wide. Both of them were gaping, as well. "How..." Kaiba murmured.

"What are you trying to do?!" Luke demanded.

"Shut up before he does something to you, runt," Yami Bakura muttered, loud enough for Ryou to hear.

But Luke, who was right next to Ryou, was able to hear it as well. "Why can I hear you?!" he asked. "What is going on here?! What's happening?!"

"The biggest plot twist EV-aaaaahhhh~," Ninja Guy replied. But his voice had changed. It was a little bit higher, but not by much, and he sounded like someone else. He had spoken in a bit of a sing-song voice, as opposed to talking regularly.

Yami took a step forward. "No..." he whispered. "It can't be..." he said a bit louder, his eyes wide with disbelief. "Are you...?"

Ninja Guy reached for his head with both hands. He made some movement with his hands that wasn't very clearly visible to anyone else. Then he pulled upwards and flicked his hand to the side. The ninja-like mask thing that was covering his face came with it. He let go, and the ninja mask fell from his hand and fell down into the darkness. His face was now visible.

His mouth was still covered, but not by the ninja mask that had been there moments ago. It was covered by a _different_ ninja mask. wrapped around his head, covering his forehead, was a headband with a weird swirly symbol on the front of it.

No one recognized him. Or that symbol.

No one except for Yami.

He took two more steps forward. "DAVID BOWIE SAMA SENSEI SEMPAI SAN SAMA KUN!*****"

"What?" everyone else asked in confusion.

"Actually, Phaar-_oh_~," 'Ninja Guy' continued, "I have told you a bah-jill-eon times that I am _not_ Day-vid Bow-eh~!" He still spoke in that sing-song voice, and it hadn't changed back.

"Okay, now I want to know what the hell is going on here!" Kaiba exclaimed. "Someone explain before I just walk out of her so I don't have to deal with this confusing crap!"

"Oh believe me, Seh-toh Kaaaaaaiii-_bah_~!" David Bowie (actually, he's not David Bowie) continued, "you're going to want to staaay for this plot twist~. We're not done just yeh-_het_~!"

"What more-" Emmy began.

David Bowie cut her off. "There's someone eh-_HEL_se you need ta mee-heet~," he said.

He snapped his fingers. A little light on the floor lit up. Then, standing above it, the hologram of a person appeared. It was a short boy with blue green hair who looked to be about ten years old. Or perhaps ten and a half.

No one recognized him... Except for Yami, Yugi, and the Kaibas.

"NOAH!?" all four of them cried in disbelief.

"Miss me?" Noah asked with a sly smile.

"Noah!" Mokuba shouted again. "How did you..."

Layton's face grew angry. "Don't think you've distracted us from what you showed us!" he shouted. "What have you done to Clive and Descole?!"

David Bowie laughed. "I all-red-_ay_ tooolld ya~!" he said. "I didn't do en-ay-theng to theh-hem~!"

On either side of Noah, about a foot off the ground, two spirit forms began appearing.

Everyone tensed up and watched carefully to see what was appearing.

After a few moments, _what_ the forms were became obvious. It was two people. The one on their left was taller than the one on their right.

A split second later, the color and type of clothes they were wearing became determinable. The taller one was wearing a black suit and black shoes. The shorter one was wearing black jeans and a black t-shirt.

A moment later, more defining features were distinguishable. The taller one had very short grey hair, and everyone could tell they were male. The shorter one was also male, but had short brown hair (not as short as the other person's) that spiked back on the sides of his head.

The next moment, their facial features were clear.

They stopped becoming more visible. They were about as transparent as Yami Yugi and Yami Bakura were at that moment.

It had only taken three seconds, but to those watching, it seemed like it had taken much longer.

Just like only Yami had recognized David Bowie and the Yugis and the Kaibas had recognized Noah, only the Layton characters recognized either of the two people whose spirit forms had appeared.

Emmy only recognized the one on the left, while Flora only recognized the one on the right. But Layton and Luke recognized both of them.

"No..." Emmy and Flora said, both of them taking a step back, their eyes just as disbelieving as everyone else's was at that point. "It can't be..."

"He's right," the one on the right said with a smirk.

"He didn't do anything to us," the one on the left added.

"We _are_ us!" Clive and Descole finished.

All four of them-Clive Dove, Descole, Noah Kaiba, and David Bowie-laughed, while everyone else stared at them in utter shock.

* * *

***This is NOT a YGOTAS joke, but rather a joke from Naruto the Abridged Comedy Fandub Spoof Series Show (which, like Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged, is created by Martin Billany). The joke is that the ninja teacher is called David Bowie, but constantly says he isn't David Bowie, but sings a lot. What Yami called him is what Naruto called him.**

**YES! SOME OF YOU WERE PARTIALLY RIGHT! But NONE of you could have possibly guessed correctly! There's just too much awesomeness going on for you to have guessed perfectly right.**

**Next chapter:  
Not Quite Ready **_OR_** The New Bait [title has yet to be determined/decided]**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	27. Not Quite Ready

**dun DUN DUUUUUUNNNN! SUPERSPECIALAWESOME MEGASUPERDUPER PLOT TWIST! OMG! ~(O u O)~**

**Lolz don't lie. None of you guessed that. NONE of you.**

**So now we know WHO Ninja Guy is. But we still don't know WHAT they want from everyone. And I'm sorry to say that you're gonna have to wait a handful of chapters to find out. Sorry.**

_I do not own the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game or show or manga, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, Duel Monsters, Naruto, Naruto: the Abridged Comedy Fandub Spoof Series Show, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 27: Not Quite Ready•

All four of them, Clive, Descole, Noah, and David Bowie-sensei laughed, while everyone else stared at them in utter shock.

They stopped laughing after a minute, starting an awkward silence that lasted a whole other minute as the ten people on the elevator platform stared at the four people on the opposite platform. In particular, Yami, Yugi, and Yami Bakura were staring at David Bowie, Kaiba and Mokuba were staring at Noah, Layton and Emmy were staring at Descole, and Flora, Ryou, and Luke were staring at Clive. Clive stared back at Flora, smirking. He let out a small and quiet laugh that no one besides himself could hear.

Finally someone broke the silence: Yami.

"Yo, Bowie!" he shouted. "Why are you here? What was the point of all of this?"

"You'll find out in due time, Phaaaa-ROW~!" Bowie-sensei replied. "But we aren't quite ready for that."

"You all seem to think we haven't been watching," Noah said. "But let me show you a few of the camera views we had close watch of from the surveillance room."

He snapped his fingers. A screen on the wall a few meters to the right of the open room behind them lit up. It was about as big as the doorway to the room, and was level to the path.

Four different images showed up, in a four section grid. Two were of the two chambers, which were now dark and empty (the cameras were on night mode and could see in the dark), one was of the room, and the fourth was of the elevator, which was still empty.

"And as for the Millenium Necklace..." Descole said.

"How do you think we knew so much about what would happen and when?" Clive asked them. "Psychic magic!"

"However," Noah said, "it _did_ let us down a few times. It didn't correctly tell us that Mokuba and Flora would try the elevator again after they accidentally came to the 20th floor. That caught us off guard, but not by much."

"We knew you would escape from the chambers and try to leave the building," Descole continued, "but you led the room sooner than we had been informed by the Necklace that you would."

"Well there's a reason for that," Yami Bakura said. "You're not meant to use its power. It was basically rejecting you."

"Even so," Descole said, "It _still_ told us enough. We obtained it while Flora and Mokuba were going through the LBFs."

"Where did you get the Millenium Necklace, anyway?" Yami questioned.

Descole chuckled. "Simple. We convinced one of your 'friends' to steal and deliver it to us. Or, as he _thought_ he was doing, delivering it to Florence."

The screen lit up and an image appeared on it. It was of a male with tanned skin, blond hair, and wearing a purple hoodie. His eyes were covered with a blindfold and he was tied and bound to a chair. His head was back, and looked limp. One could assume that he was unconscious or dead, depending on how dark you wanted to look at the situation.

"MARIK?!" Yami, Yugi, Ryou, Kaiba, and Mokuba all cried in confusion. "What is he doing here?!"

"MARIK?!" Yami Bakura's voice cried, a little late. He suddenly wrestled control of Ryou's body from him, and took over. He raised his fist at Bowie-sensei and the others. "Why the bloody buggering hell is Marik here?!" he demanded. "What did you wankers do to him?"

Clive chuckled. "Hit a nerve, have we?" he asked tauntingly. "We didn't do much. We just borrowed Ryou's cellphone and sent a text to him as if from you, telling him to steal the Millenium Necklace from his sister and bring it and the Millenium Rod to us. It was easy. Marik's not the brightest in the world, no offense to him. He came right here like we told him to. Three birds with one stone. We now have the Millenium Necklace, the Millenium Rod,_ and _something to convince you to do what we want!"

"I'm not doing anything for you!" Yami Bakura shouted. "Why would I?!"

"Because we have Marik," Noah replied simply.

Yami Bakura's eyes widened, he lowered his fist, and took a step back. He looked at the screen again, then back at the (other) villains. He growled.

The hikaris giggled. "thiefshipping," they muttered to each other.

"And it's ironic how much more Britsh my yami acts than me," Ryou added.

Yami Bakura whipped around and gave them death glares, especially Ryou. "Shut up, Host," he ordered

Ryou clamped a hand over his mouth and mumbled from behind it, "Yes, Spirit."

Yami Bakura whipped back around and continued glaring at everyone who made up "Ninja Guy". "Leave him out of this! He has nothing to do with you people! He doesn't even like Professor Layton. He's more of a Hetalia and My Little Pony fangirl."

"That's really nice," Clive said sarcastically.

"What do you even want with any of us?!" Yami asked. "TELL ME!"

"Oh you'll find out," Noah couldn't help but answer. "I'm about to summon it!"

"But in due time," Descole added. "We _really _need to get going. We're not _quite_ ready for you just yet. We knew you were trying to escape, but you were doing so a little too early than we had expected."

"We'll be leaving now," Clive said. "But expect to see us again soon! Just enjoy your time here and have fun thinking about how you failed to escape yet again!" He ended off with an evil laugh.

Everyone heard the elevator doors opening. They turned around.

The doors had opened. Inside the elevator were the two guards from before. One of them had his hand on the button panel, which everyone assumed was now uncovered.

Descole laughed. Everyone turned to him and the others. "See you later!" he said. "Have fun!"

A moment later, he, Clive, and Noah disappeared. The light beneath Noah turned off as well. The room behind Bowie-sensei closed up again. Bowie-sensei used his expert ninja moves to rush over to the elevator and run inside before anyone could follow him.

"By the way-hay, Bah-koo-rah~!" Bowie-sensei said just before the doors closed. "Your lov-ah is right oh-vah they-her~!"

He pointed to the screen. It suddenly slid away to reveal the very image that was on the screen. It was a hidden room, with Marik in it tied up and unconscious in a chair.

"So that room is right behind the screen?!" Ryou asked. "The screen now seems a bit unnecessary and redundant, to me."

Lights suddenly lit up in midair, shining on and revealing a path from the one they stood on leading to the small room Marik was in.

Yami Bakura's eyes widened and he gasped. "Marik!" he cried out. He started to run down the newly lit path, in Marik's direction.

Kaiba and Yami ran over to him and each of them grabbed hold of one of his arms, holding the evil spirit back.

"Get the bugger off of me!" he snarled at them.

"Don't be an idiot!" Yami said. "It's obviously a trap!"

"I'm the greatest thief that has ever lived!" Yami Bakura countered. "I know a trap when I see one. And even if it was, I would dodge and escape from it!"

The Millenium Ring flashed brightly, and an unseen force pushed Kaiba and Yami's hands away from him. This gave him the opportunity to break away from them.

Yami Bakura took a step.

His foot touched something. He looked down just in time to see a conveniently placed rope trap there. He moved his foot quickly so he wouldn't get caught in it.

His foot was caught anyway. The rope tightened around his ankle and suddenly lifted him off the ground.

He didn't try to reach out to grab someone's hand, because he wasn't about asking for help, especially from Seto Kaiba or the Pharaoh. He just let himself not get saved last-minute, even thought both of them had their hands out ready to grab his if he _had_ held his hand out.

He was pulled up several meters from the floor, to a dangerous height. A height which he could be seriously injured if he fell from it.

"BAKURA!" both Ryou and Flora cried out in worry. Despite neither of them liking the spirit, he was still bonded to Ryou, and Ryou didn't want to see his yami hurt. Plus, he was in Ryou's body at the moment. That might also have played a role in their concern.

But you never know...

* * *

**YEP! CLIFHANGER! I love those. They're my specialty for chapter endings! (^3^)**

**By the way, just in case you don't fully understand this yet, Davie Bowie-sensei is NOT Ninja Guy himself. Rather, he is one of the four people who MAKE UP Ninja Guy. Descole, Clive, and Noah are part of Ninja Guy as well. This will be made clear and explained more in later chapters.  
(But if you want a spoiler, basically the reason why Ninja Guy has a different voice than any of the people who make him up is because Descole and either Noah or Clive combined and faked their voices a bit to make the voice of "Ninja Guy" not recognizable to any of the Layton or Yugioh characters before it was time for the grand reveal.)**

**AND SO MARIK ENTERS THE SCENE! Yesh! Thiefshipping.**

**So far...  
****Ryou X Flora  
****Emmy X Yami  
****Marik X Bakura  
****The best combination of pairings for YGO/PL crossover, don't you think?**

**Next chapter:  
A Mere Distraction**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	28. A Mere Distraction

**Wondering why I haven't updated this week until today, or maybe you're here from tumblr because of my post about postponement? ****I waited until today to update any and all weekly-updated fanfics because today is a special day for a very special someone.**

**This chapter is a shout out and present to randomgirl40, my fellow fanfic author and thiefshipping fangirl, who's birthday is today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RANDOM!  
****She's also my online friend and one of my biggest supporters. If you didn't know, she is the reason why Marik is in this story, because she suggested thiefshipping. Basically, you owe part of the plot to her. Go check out her stuff, but only if you can handle the randomness!**

* * *

**dun DUN DUUUUUUNNNN! SUPERSPECIALAWESOME MEGASUPERDUPER PLOT TWIST! OMG! ~(O u O)~**

**Lolz don't lie. None of you guessed that. NONE of you.**

**So now we know WHO Ninja Guy is. But we still don't know WHAT they want from everyone. And I'm sorry to say that you're gonna have to wait a handful of chapters to find out. Sorry.**

_I do not own the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game or show or manga, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, Duel Monsters, Naruto, Naruto: the Abridged Comedy Fandub Spoof Series Show, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 28: A Mere Distraction•

Yami Bakura just hung there, his arms hanging down, his shirt slightly lowered due to gravity, his free leg also hanging down, frowning, his eyes narrowed, and an irritated and embarrased look on his face.

"What was that you about being an expert thief?" Yami called up sarcastically. "Something, something, something 'I can avoid every trap in the whole entire imcompetent buggering world because I'm the Ra damned bloody Thief King'?"

Yami Bakura pointed at him and shouted back, "Shut your buggering face, Pharaoh!" Then he let the hand drop and continued hanging there helplessly.

"Yami!" Ryou called up.

"Which one?" both darks asked.

"Uh...the evil wanker up there."

"What the bloody hell do you want from my miserable life, Ryou?" Yami Bakura asked boredly.

"Try using the Ring to get out!"

Yami Bakura's eyes widened in realization. "Oh...right."

The Ring was still hanging from his neck, but below him due to gravity, like his arms and leg and shirt hem were. He reached for it, tilting his head up (down?) as he reached.

But when he did, the cord the Millenium Ring hung from slipped off his chin. His eyes widened and he made a wild grab for it.

He touched the cord with his finger tips, but it slipped away. The Millenium Ring fell down and out of his reach.

"NO!" Ryou cried. He flew up and made a dive for the Ring, hoping that by some fluke he would be able to touch it. But when he held his hands out, it sailed right through him. He whipped around. "Kaiba! Catch it!?"

Although "Ninja Guy" was gone and so was the Necklace, the Puzzle were still activated, so Kaiba heard Ryou. He dived for the Ring. It almost fell over the edge, but he reached out and caught it just in time. Yami had to hold Kaiba's other arm to steady him a bit and keep HIM from falling over the edge of the path.

Both of them stepped back once everything was still.

"Ryou!" Yugi called up. "How much time do you have?! Before you and him switch out?"

"I don't know!" Ryou shouted down. "Usually it's five minutes, but it could be less, especially with the distance."

"Hos—" Yami Bakura started to say. Then he changed his mind and said instead, "Hikari! It'll only be one minute. The Millenium Ring is too far away!"

Ryou's jaw dropped. "Seriously?!" he cried.

"Unfortunately," Yami Bakura replied. "Don't try to throw the Ring up. Not that I won't catch it; it's just that none of you have good enough aim."

"Hey!" everyone shouted defensively.

"It's been more than thirty seconds since it fell," Yugi said.

"Actually," Yami said. "I believe it has already been a minute."

"Seriously?" Ryou asked. "No it has n—"

"—ot..." he finished, now in his body. His dark side was nowhere to be seen or heard.

"Argh!" he cried. He wriggled around. "H...help me? Someone? Get me down! The blood is rushing to my head and it's making me dizzy."

Suddenly, Ryou was pulled up higher by the rope. He struggled against it, pointlessly reaching down for someone's hand. Of course, no one was in reach. He was pulled up into the ceiling and out of sight.

"RYOU!" Flora cried out.

Everyone silenced, holding their breaths and waiting for something to happen. Approximately one minute later, something did.

Ryou reappeared and was slowly lowered back to his original height above the paths. But now, he was tied up by several ropes wrapped around his body. He was tied at the arms, waist, legs, and all three of these together.

"No!"

He was still hanging by his ankle.

"No doubt Marik and the evil Bakura are being used to distract us and buy them some time to be ready for us," Emmy said.

"Someone check the elevators!" Layton ordered. "They can't stay in there forever and stall the elevator the entire time!"

"Actually, Professor..." Mokuba said, pointing at the top of he elevator, which there was a little set of lights indicating which floor the elevator was on. It had stopped at 1, but now began traveling up again. "I think they have one of their guards riding the elevator until they're ready for us."

"You would think that they'd be ready by now," Yugi complained, "what with how much time we spent in those chambers. Speaking of time, I wonder what time it is."

"So do I," Yami said. "I completely lost track of how long we've been here."

"Who cares?!" Luke asked. "Let's just get Ryou down, rescue that Marik guy, and get out of here!"

"You guys get Marik," Flora said in a low voice.

Everyone turned to her.

Flora was frowning deeply and had her eyes open wide. Her face darkened gained a confident and determined look, and a fire shone in her eyes.

"I'll get Ryou."

She took out the invisible gun and aimed it at Ryou. She turned the rotating thingy one notch to the left. She aimed carefully...then pulled the trigger.

A fireball came out of the gun and flew towards Ryou. But it didn't hit him. Instead, it hit the rope he was hanging from, just above his foot and ankle. The rope caught fire and the flame began eating away at it.

Ryou looked up and his eyes widened and what he saw happening. He looked down at Flora. "Wait! Fora! What are you—" When he noticed her facial expression, he shut up instantly and his eyes widened in wonder. The look on her face made Ryou believe that she knew what she was doing and should be trusted. Ryou had faith in his girlfriend's intellect, and didn't question what she was doing.

While it was burning, Flora reset the gun, then held it upside-down. She aimed it at Ryou.

By the time she was ready, the rope had burned almost completely in the spot that had been hit by the fireball. The last thread snapped under Ryou's weight and he began to fall.

"Won't the impact seriously hurt him?!" Emmy shouted.

Flora didn't reply. And it was too late, anyway. Ryou was falling. Fast.

Flora fired several shots. Because she was holding the invisible gun upside-down, the bullets bounced off. However, the impact of the bullets still affected him, and each time they hit, he slowed down a little.

When he was at a safe enough distance to not be hurt _too_ badly by the fall, Flora tossed the gun aside and ran directly underneath Ryou's falling body with her arms out in front of her.

Ryou landed right on top of her, in her arms, and caused her to fall to the ground.

He had his eyes closed, but slowly opened them once both he and Flora were on the floor.

He gasped in relief that he was alright, and turned his head to look at Flora. Her face was flushed, in excitement. She was breathing hard. Ryou realized that it was probably because he was heavier than her, and he had landed right on top of her.

But before he could make a move to get up (which would have been difficult due to the fact that he was tied up), Flora moved one of her arms out from underneath him and managed to push him enough so he was on her lap instead. Now she could freely sit up. She did so and looked down on him, smiling.

"_Now_ who needs rescuing?" Flora asked playfully.

Ryou smiled back and laughed. "I've already been rescued. That was amazing! Thanks so much, Flora."

"No need to thank me, Ryou-kun," she said sweetly. She planted a quick kiss on his forehead, then hugged him.

"I wish I could hug back," Ryou said, a bit sadly.

"Oh!" Flora said, picking up her head. "I almost forgot." She wriggled out from under him and began trying to untie the knots.

"Hold on, Flora," Luke said. Flora stopped and looked up. Luke was standing next to her. "I've got this. The Professor and I solved a puzzle like this when we were trying to save ourselves from an evil vampire."

Flora's hand went to her mouth and her eyes widened. "What?! Vampire!? When was this?!"

Layton sighed and shook his head. "For the last time, Luke, we already established that Anton was _not_ a vampire."

Luke got to work untying the knots holding Ryou. "Well he's still creepy. I still consider him a vampire."

Emmy shook her head as well. "Typical Luke. Always so childish."

"I'm _not_ a child!" Luke countered. "I'm already a teenager, and you know it!"

"I said child_ish_," Emmy said with a smirk. "Not _a_ child."

"Hmph." Luke moved away from Ryou, having untied all of the complicated knots. Flora moved back over and removed the ropes from around Ryou.

He stretched his arms and arched his back. "Ow...that was pretty bloody uncomfortable..." In mid-stretch, he felt Flora's arms suddenly wrap around him. He froze for only an instant, then hugged her back. "Thanks again," he whispered into her ear.

"No need to thank me," Flora whispered back.

"I know."

Mokuba looked on with a neutral expression on his face._ I'm over it..._ he told himself. _I'm over her... I am... I swear..._

Emmy noticed Mokuba watching them.

"Mokuba," she said to distract him, "you and Luke go try to free Marik. Kaiba and I will keep an eye on the elevator."

Mokuba looked up and nodded, Emmy's distraction having worked.

His and Luke's eyes met, and they nodded. They headed for where Marik was, being mindful of the floor and any traps that might be on it.

Meanwhile, Kaiba tapped Ryou on the shoulder. He and Fkora broke away and looked up. "Here," Kaiba said, holding out the Millenium Ring. "Take it."

Ryou nodded. After mumbling a "thank you", he stood up and took the Millenium Ring from Kaiba. As he slipped the cord around his neck, Flora stood up and watched Mokuba and Luke carefully make their way over to Marik.

Kaiba then walked over to the elevator and joined Emmy in watching it.

"Ryou," Flora said, "how long until the other Bakura can take over?"

"Five minutes," Ryou replied. He looked at his ankle. Luke had removed the rope from around his ankle, as well. "But I'm not going to let him take over. I have no idea what trouble he's going to get us into if he tries to go after Marik again."

"Why would they do that to him anyway? They said something about using him to convince your dark to help them. But what could he do for them? And why would Marik convince him to do that?"

Ryou blushed and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Well...my yami and Marik are... In a relationship. It would make sense to use Marik as a ransom for him."

Flora nodded. "I never knew that before. I take it you don't exactly like them together?"

Ryou frowned. "Well, Bakura and I _do _share a body, after all."

"Ooohhh. I get it."

"We made it!" Mokuba's voice cried from over by the room Marik was in.

"But it's blocked by some kind of invisible wall," Luke said, knocking on the empty air. "Or it could be _really_ clean and clear glass."

"I'm just going to pretend that it's glass," Mokuba said.

At the mention of the word "invisible", Flora suddenly remembered her invisible gun. It was still visible to her, thankfully, and was on the floor near her. She picked it up and put it back in its holster. "How are we going to reach him, then?" she asked as she did so.

"I don't know," Ryou said. "But it think he _is_ intended to be a distraction."

"We should still save him," Flora said.

Ryou laughed a little. "I don't think you know him like I do."

"What do you mean?"

"Well...he's on my yami's side. He's one of the evil guys."

Flora frowned and looked at Marik. "Still. We should still help him."

Ryou nodded. "I understand. But how?"

* * *

**GO FLORA!**

**And so you get to read about the Invisible Gun in action. Cool, right?  
****By the way, for you PL fans who aren't YGOTAS fans as well, I made up all of the invisible gun's powers and features. None of those are mentioned in the abridged series. I made them all up.****  
**

**Next chapter, they try to rescue Marik! Yay!  
Calm down. That doesn't mean there will be any sexiness going on for thiefshipping.**

**Next chapter:  
Another Damsel To Rescue**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	29. Another Damsel To Rescue

_**IMPORTANT NOTE!**_

**This monday, I start school. If you read that journal entry on deviantART about "My Life In Decline", you'd know what this means. This means that I am banning myself from any fun and fandom-relevant sites on weekdays, INCLUDING FRIDAY (unless something special/important comes up). This includes this site, deviantART, YouTube, ROBLOX, and tumblr. Any and all weekly updated fanfics, including this one, will ONLY be updated on Saturdays and/or Sundays. I MIGHT be on the site on a weekday if it's a no-school day or a holiday or whatever, but updates will only be on Saturday or Sunday. I love writing these fanfics for you guys, but I gotta stay focused on my school work. So don't expect ANY updates on weekdays. THE _ONLY_ EXCEPTION is in the case of seasonal school vacations (i.e. winter break, spring break, etc) OR if a fanfic is specifically scheduled to update on a specific day. "seasonal school vacations" do NOT include holiday breaks or weekends (because those are only a few days).**

**This pattern will continue all the way until the end of the school year. You'll know if I'm on any of the sites by my profile pic. If my profile pic is YGO-related (in the case of FF.N, my drawing of Ryou with that blue background), then I'm on the site for that day(s). If the profile pic is something NOT related to YGO or my fandoms, I'm not on the site and I'm focused on school.  
**

**(Fun fact: I have NEVER changed my profile pic on this site. This school year will be the first time.)**

**Now back to your regularly scheduled fanfic!**

* * *

**HELLO!**

**Sorry about not updating last week. I almost forgot. oops...**

**Not much to say in the AN. Just that Marik is rescued in this chapter. And more fun with Shadow stuff. YAY!**

**Also, this will be a LONG chapter!**

_I do not own the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game or show or manga, YGO:TAS, Professor Layton, Duel Monsters, Naruto, Naruto: the Abridged Comedy Fandub Spoof Series Show, or any of the characters/trademarks in those._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

•Chapter 29: Another Damsel To Rescue•

Ryou paused. "Hold on," he said. His eyes went unfocused. Despite this, he looked like he was concentrating hard on something.

"What is it?" Flora asked him.

Ryou didn't reply. A moment later, a voice from behind him spoke.

"What's the problem?!"

Startled, Flora screamed briefly and moved away from Ryou. Her heart racing, she looked behind Ryou and saw Yami Bakura behind Ryou in his spirit form.

Ryou turned around to face his dark.

"Why are you trying to block me?" Yami Bakura asked him.

"I'm not letting you take over," Ryou replied calmly.

"Well if you don't get Marik out of there fast enough, I'll just force you to give up control and I'll get him out myself."

"Bakura," Layton said.

The spirit looked to him. "What?" he asked in annoyance.

"If we can't get him out..." He hesitated, hoping that what he was about to say wouldn't upset the spirit _too_ much. "...we might have to leave him behind."

"NO BLOODY WAY!" Yami Bakura objected. "I know for a fact that Marik won't be able to get out by himself, and I'm not going to wait for any of them to just kindly let him walk out."

"They won't harm him, I'm sure. They most likely still need him."

"I don't care!" he cried, moving away from Ryou and over to Layton. "If it was Flora in there, and Ryou was trying to get her out, I'm pretty damn sure that you would stay behind until you got her out. I know all of you hate me, but I don't care. I'm not leaving without Marik!"

Ryou suddenly appeared in his place. Ryou turned around, and Layton looked over at Ryou's body. Yami Bakura had taken control of it.

He walked over to Layton and pushed Ryou aside. "Hey!" the hikari cried.

_"Shut up,"_ Yami Bakura said to him through their mind link, before saying to Layton out loud, "If Ryou wouldn't leave Flora behind, then I have every right not to leave Marik behind. And I'm not letting Ryou take over and walk away, either. So either stay and help me or leave without either of us." He turned his head and looked purposefully at Flora. "You decide," he said to both Flora and Layton.

Flora clasped her hands and took two steps in Yami Bakura's direction. "I was planning to help Marik, anyway. I don't like you, but I'm willing to forgive you just for now because we're all on the same side here. I'll stay and help, if you need me to.

Yami Bakura's eyes widened and he turned around completely. "Wait...really? You would actually...?" He scowled at her. "Why?"

"Because like you said, Ryou would do the same for me. So I understand why you're doing it for Marik. And even still, I'm not going to let someone stay trapped in here because of me. I'm staying until Marik gets out."

"Flora..." Ryou breathed.

"We're already over here," Luke said, "and if Flora is okay with it, then so am I."

"Same here, I guess," Mokuba said.

"I'm in as well," Emmy said. "And so are Yami and Yugi."

"What?!" both of them exclaimed.

"Uh, since when?" Yami asked her.

Emmy gave him a stern look and folded her arms. "Since I said so."

Yami copied her stance and stared back, refusal written all over his face.

A certain glint came into Emmy's eyes that only Yami understood. He lowered his arms and sighed. "Fine. I'm in too. And so is Yugi. Because I said so."

"Hey! You're not the boss of me!" Yugi said.

"Shut up, panda."

Yugi facepalmed. "I was hoping no one would call me that. So much for that."

"You know, it's not like we can actually leave anyway," Kaiba reminded everyone. "We can't leave until the elevator stops moving so we can call it up here.

"So we have my host and I, Yugi and the Pharaoh, Mokuba, Kaiba, Flora, Luke, and Emmy on my side," Yami Bakura said. "Perfect." He walked over to the other path again, but paused before he walked down it and over to Mokuba and Luke. "PHARAOH! You're helping me!"

Yami folded his arms and took a step back. "Why should I?"

"Because I asked you to. And because your girlfriend said you had to. And because I helped you out back in the chambers, so you owe me."

"You nearly killed everyone down there!" Yami Yugi reminded him.

"I was aiming for the rich douchebag over there," he said, pointing at Kaiba.

"Don't make me sue you," Kaiba responded.

"I don't care," Yami said to Yami Bakura.

"I'll let you duel me later," Yami Bakura said. "And I'll even let you beat me."

Yami unfolded his arms and let out a laugh. He walked over to Yami Bakura with a grin on his face. "_Let_ me beat you? Bitch, please. I'll beat you regardless of whether you let me or not. Don't trouble yourself over throwing the game when you're going to lose anyway."

Yami Bakura ignored most of that comment. He took out his and Ryou's cards from his pocket, began looking for a certain card, and talked as he did. "I take to mean that you_ are_ going to help me."

"If I must," Yami replied boredly. He folded his arms and leaned to the side. "What are you doing?"

"You'll see." By then, he had found the card he was looking for. He put the rest away, then held up the card.

Yami could see that it was the magic card, Spirit Illusion.

"Hey..." Ryou murmured. "Isn't that what I did earlier...?"

"It is," Yami Bakura answered him, just before the Millenium Ring flashed brightly. The light traveled from the Ring to the card. A second later, a weird, thick, Shadow Realm-like purple fog came out of the card's picture and completely engulfed Yami Bakura's body, hiding him from sight.

"Yami, what are you doing?" Ryou asked.

Yami Bakura didn't answer.

The smoke continued swirling around him. A few seconds later, the cloud of fog gradually became smaller and smaller, changing shape so that it looked like a silhouette of Yami Bakura's body. As it did, it changed from purple to black. He was still holding up the card.

The size of the cloud grew smaller still, until it was exactly the size of Yami Bakura's body. The Millenium Ring and the Spirit Illusion magic card became visible, not being covered by the fog. The cloud of fog had completely formed perfectly to the contour of his body (yes, including his hair). It didn't shrink any further or reveal any more of him. His eyes were closed, as far as anyone- even Ryou- could tell.

Then suddenly, he lowered his arms and opened his eyes. Everyone who could see his face gasped. His eyes were their normal shape, but they were entirely red. Even the outline of them was red. On top of that, they were glowing. The Ring, the cord it hung from, and the cards in his pocket were all uncovered by the fog, and easily visible. He looked really freaky.

"I look pretty terrifying, don't I?" he asked everyone, turning so they could see him. His voice hadn't really changed, but now there was a slightly darker hint to it that everyone could somehow clearly detect.

Flora involuntarily nodded and took a step back. Ryou floated over to and behind her and gently put his hands on her shoulders. Despite his intangible form, she somehow felt his hands, and turned her head to look at him. He smiled at her reassuringly. "Don't worry," he said.

Flora smiled and nodded. She put one of her hands on her shoulders, still somehow able to feel Ryou's hands overlapping with hers.

Yami Bakura laughed at her. "That's right, you _should_ be scared. But I'm not going to do anything to you." _Yet_, he thought maliciously.

"DON'T THINK I DIDN'T HEAR THAT!" Ryou shouted accusingly.

"Stop reading my mind, Host," Yami Bakura shot back.

"You do it to me," Ryou retorted.

"Because I can. Now stop being distracting." Yami Bakura levitated about an inch off the ground, then floated over to Yami. He raised his arm, the one not holding the card, and swiped at Yami. His arm sailed right through. "Perfect."

Yami flinched, and wondered why he had just done that.

All of the Yu-Gi-Oh characters suddenly realized that his body wasn't _covered _in the fog, but rather his body had _become_ the fog! Like Ryou had done with the Change of Heart magic card earlier, he had become the Spirit Illusion magic card. Yet, he could still hold and touch certain things. A bit freaky.

"Now, let's go," he continued. He turned to the path and flew down it. As he did, he put the card back with the others. It still had a little bit of light visible in the center of it, but it wasn't as bright as before.

Yami shrugged and followed him.

When they reached where Mokuba and Luke were, Yami Bakura landed and both darks walked right up to the glass (it was obvious by then that it _was_ glass). Luke and Mokuba walked around them, down the path, and back over to everyone else on the main path.

"Ryou," Luke said, walking over to him and Flora, "do you know if they'll be able to do it?"

Ryou shrugged, and looked at his and Yugi's yamis. "I don't know. He might. I mean _they_ might. I _do_ know that Bakura rarely _ever_ gives up. On top of that, he _really_ loves Marik, although he rarely admits it or even says it to Marik. He _really_ won't leave until they get Marik out of here."

"Hm," was all Luke said in response, as he also turned to watch.

"PANDA!" Yami Bakura called out.

It was assumed he was talking to Yugi.

"What do you want?" Yugi asked, teleporting to Yami Yugi's side in his spirit form.

"You remember that thing you told Ryou you did in the Orichalcos arc?" Yami Bakura asked. "When you used the Puzzle to break the Seal keeping you from talking to the Pharaoh?"

Yami gave his hikari an angry look. "You _told_ his host about that?!" he asked Yugi. "What for?! And how?! YGOTAS has _barely_ reached Season 4! The closest we've gotten are in the Evil Council Videos which I _totally_ don't watch so I can laugh at Marik and Bakura's fail attempts at being evil."

It wasn't easy to tell, but it looked like Yami Bakura was glaring at Yami Yugi.

"Uh...I didn't tell him..." Yugi said.

"Either you told him or Ryou looked up the episode online," Yami Bakura said. "He's probably one of the only YGOTAS characters who actually does that. But anyway, he knows. Do you?"

"Well," Yugi began, "since I'm Abridged Yugi, and the Abridged Series hasn't reached that arc yet, I'm tempted to say no. But for the sake of...uh..."

"I don't care what Ryou says," Yami Bakura said. "You can say 'fanfiction convenience'."

"...for the sake of fanfiction convenience, yes, I do remember it. Why?"

"Because if the Puzzle is strong enough to break the Seal Of Orichalcos, at least partially, then it should be strong enough to break this glass partially." Yami Bakura turned his gaze to Yami Yugi. "Pharaoh? Want to give it a try?"

Yami glared at Yugi once more, then nodded at Yami Bakura. "Sure. I'll try it. But if I get one scratch on my Puzzle, I'm having Kaiba sue you and I'm making that duel you promised me a Shadow Game."

"First of all, whatever. Second of all, you of all people should know that these things are over 3000 years old. Or 5000. If they haven't been affected physically by time, your Puzzle is _not_ going to be physically affected by you bashing it into strong yet breakable glass. Just do it."

Yami rolled his eyes and put his hand on his hip. "Fine. Jeez. Such a bloody drama queen."

"I could say the same about you. Now get to it before I decide to push you off this platform and steal your Millenium Item right here and now."

"Yami..." Ryou said in a warning tone.

Yami Bakura ignored him.

Yami Yugi narrowed his eyes at Yami Bakura, then turned to the glass. He removed his Millenium Puzzle from around his neck, held it in both hands, held it above his head, then aimed the point of the pyramid in front of him and swung the Puzzle straight at the glass. He did this repeatedly, trying to shatter it.

It didn't work. The glass didn't shatter, as far as anyone could see. However, because he was watching carefully, Yami Bakura noticed that the glass _was_ cracking. But only a little bit. The cracks spread to about the size of a hand print, if there were any hand-prints on the clean glass. In fact, the glass was so clean and clear that the cracks themselves were barely visible at a glance. But again, Yami Bakura noticed them.

Another minute of bashing passed. Yami dropped his arms because they were tired. He looked at the glass and noticed the cracks, then looked at Yami Bakura. "Sorry, that's all I got. You do the rest. I'm out."

He put the Puzzle back around his neck and walked a few steps away. But he turned around again so he could watch what Yami Bakura would do next.

Yami Bakura narrowed his eyes at Yami Yugi. "Hmph. If I wasn't already planning on finishing the job, I would say that you were totally useless to me. But as it turns out, what you've done is plenty enough for me to finish off."

Yami tilted his head in confusion. "Wait, what?"

"You'll see," Yami Bakura replied as he turned back to the glass.

He went from levitating an inch off the ground to levitating about a foot off the ground. Then he backed up several meters. Everyone's eyes locked on him and followed his every move. He leaned forward, looked straight at the cracks in the glass, and held his arms straight at his sides.

"Everyone back up!" He shouted. "Move to the nearest wall. Pharaoh, get out of the way unless you actually _do_ want to get pushed off."

Since no one had any idea what he was going to do, they obeyed.

The instant they were backed into the nearest large platform and Yami Yugi was off the path leading to Marik suddenly flew straight forward, rapidly flying directly towards the glass. A second or two before impact, he put out an arm straight in front of him.

Some of those watching cringed, expecting him to crash. But he didn't. Instead, there was a loud and almost deafening _CRACK!_, and everyone either covered their ears or shielded their eyes from the almost blinding burst of darkness around the area of impact. There was a swirling vortex of darkness for an instant, then anyone who wasn't covering their eyes saw the glass wall cracking and shattering. The shards went all over the path that they had been on, so it was a good thing Yami Bakura had told them to back up. Everyone closed their eyes, even the ones who were already covering them.

When the dust and shards had cleared away and when the darkness disappeared, everyone opened their eyes and uncovered their ears/eyes. They looked over at Yami Bakura.

He was inside the room Marik was in, standing over the unconscious Egyptian.

For whatever reason, everyone started applauding. Yami Bakura looked up briefly at the sound, then went back to looking at Marik.

Ryou, Yugi, and Yami all walked/floated over to the two of them, Yami being careful to avoid the glass. Layton and Emmy immediately went to work brushing the glass shards off the path with their feet. Kaiba went back to watching the elevator. Flora, Luke, and Mokuba watched Yami Bakura from a distance.

Yami Bakura grabbed Marik's shoulders and started trying to shake him awake. "MARIK!" he shouted, "CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

Marik didn't wake up or even stir.

Yami entered the small room and started untying the ropes around Marik. Yami Bakura watched him work for a few seconds, then stared at Marik. He tried to think of the fastest way to wake him up.

And then he got it.

He put his mouth close to Marik's ear and whispered, "Marik, you've been kidnapped and are being held captive by scientists. They've been experimenting on your body, and they've made it so that you no longer have your tan or your sexiness."

Yami had been working fast, so by this time he had gotten the ropes around Marik's torso. He had started working at the ropes tying Marik's legs to the chair, when Marik suddenly shot up out of the chair, shouting at the top of his lungs, "NO IT CAN'T BE WHY DID THIS HAPPEN TO ME WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE SUCH A CRUEL PUNISHMENT!"

Yami flinched at the sudden movement and was almost hit in the face by one of Marik's hands.

Yami Bakura sighed in relief and held Marik, who had fallen into his arms after jumping up.

Marik finally opened his eyes. He looked up, then his gaze fell on the yami holding him. His face lit up. "Oh my Ra! Bakura! How did you get here...aaaannnnd what happened to you!? Why the frig do you look like that!?"

He tried to take a step away, but couldn't because one of his feet was still tied to the leg of the chair. He took another look around. "Where am I?! And why is the Pharaoh...?"

Yami Bakura put a finger to Marik's lips to quiet him. "Not now. We'll explain later. Let's get you out of this room first."

Marik bit his lip and nodded.

Yami finally untied Marik's leg. Marik was about to take a step, But Yami Bakura picked him up before he could. He took to the air and carried Marik out of the room and down to the platform near the elevator, where Kaiba and Mokuba were. Emmy and Layton were at the other platform and making their way back to the elevator platform. All of the glass had been brushed off. Flora and Luke were following them.  
Yami Bakura gently set Marik down on his back on the platform. He stayed kneeling next to him. Marik sat up and looked around.

"Can I ask questions now?" Marik asked Yami Bakura.

"Yes," Yami Bakura replied. "Go right ahead."

"Okay. Why do you look like that, why was I in that room, why was I tied up, how did any of you get here, why was the Pharaoh helping untie me, who are these other people, and WHAT THE FRIG IS GOING ON HERE!?"

There was a brief moment of silence as everyone waited for someone else to say something. They all looked at Yami Bakura expectantly.

Yami Bakura sighed in annoyance. "This is going to take a while..."

* * *

**THIEFSHIPPING! YAY! Guess what? You get more of it next chapter.**

**Here's something for the rest of you who don't really care about the thiefshipping: In a chapter or two, they finally leave this area and the plot moves on!  
That's right! The people in "Ninja Guy" are almost ready for them!**

**Next chapter:  
Kidnappee 3 and Party Member 9**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


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